Syrian Rebels: Conditions ‘Not Favorable’ for Peace Talks

The spokesperson was Riad Harid Hijab, as mentioned in the article. Hijab served as “Prime Minister” under Bashar al-Assad in 2012 before he defected.

The 2011 Arab Spring protesters were brutally suppressed by the civil war and Assad’s barrel bombings. In the article, it mentioned that since the ceasefire began, there were once again peaceful protesters in the streets protesting against the Assad government.

Regular people are against the Assad government. This is confirmed by a survey of Syrian refugees in Germany:

Fifty-two percent said they could only return to Syria with the departure of Assad, while 42 percent said they would return to Syria only after the departure of Islamic State (ISIS). Free elections would be a condition for 42 percent of those surveyed, while the majority—67.8percent—simply said that the “the war has to stop” before they would consider returning. Eight percent said they did not want to go back.

Hijab also claimed that there were thousands in Assad’s prisons. Evidence confirms that this is the case. The Assad government detains those who oppose the regime or people are insufficiently loyal to it and some of them are tortured, beaten, raped or killed. Relatives of the dead detainees have identified them as everything from civilian activists, to journalists, to bloggers who blog against Assad. A teenager whose crime was having an anti-Assad song on his smartphone, was caught by a guard at a checkpoint and he was detained and was eventually tortured and killed. A woman was tortured and beaten up for having a voice recorder. There are 50,000 detainees at any one time and thousands have been killed. The Assad army executed captured soldiers and civilians.

Human Rights Watch’s report, If the Dead Could Speak,
has verified photographs smuggled from an Assad defector. Included were photographs of people who were dead from a facility; many were tortured, beaten and starved to death. The United Nations’ report, Out of Sight, Out of Mind, reported that there are tens of thousands of detainees at any one time and thousands have died. It reported torture, rape and starvation of detainees who allegedly oppose the Assad government or are insufficiently loyal to it. This includes children. Foreign fighters who are allied with the Assad government had massacred soldiers and civilians, including alleged beheadings.

Hijab also claimed that Assad had “blood on his hands”. This is true. Assad’s barrel bombs created casualties, 99% of the casualties are civilians and only 1% are combatants. That’s the civilian/combatant fatality ratio for barrel bombs. Of course the civilian/combatant fatality ratio different for other forms of combat. That’s why some statistics still show that most of the people killed are combatants instead of civilians.

Assad might also be bombing his peaceful opposition, calling them
“terrorists”. That might the reason why 99% of the casualties from his barrel bombs were civilians.

Videos of atrocities committed by the Assad government:

Assad troops dropped barrel bombs in the city, perhaps to target peaceful protesters:

Assad bombs a bus:

Assad bombs a bus (2):

Children murdered:

Bianca, I know you support dictators not just Assad but also Sisi, even though he has murdered thousands of people. So you would probably dismiss and deny this evidence as “propaganda”.