‘The world is not only European Union and United States’ – Syrian FM

Russia's foreign minister has met his Syrian counterpart to assess the Damascus crisis. Following the meeting, the Syrian foreign minister said the Russian position provides an incentive to Syria to introduce reforms.

“We move at an intensive rate towards implementing reform. Russia's position is strong and induces us to act,"  Syrian foreign minister Walid Muallem said on Monday. “We expect support from the countries that are on our side. The world is not only the European Union and the United States. "Dr Ibrahim Alloush from Jordan University believes that Damascus has already proved that it is very serious about instigating reforms. It has already initiated a series of acts and regulations regarding the media, the multi-party system, and has abolished martial law, the state security court and many other things. “The opposition unfortunately has been refusing to sit down and hold dialogue with the regime. So the problem here is not the Syrian leadership but the opposition which is being encouraged by interference from abroad, whether by the Gulf Cooperation Council or the NATO via Turkey, especially, and other groups working underground in Syria using arms,” he explained.Dr Alloush says the Syrian regime, on the other hand, has been seriously attempting to instigate dialogue.     The UN believes more than 2700 people have died since violence began in the country seven months ago. But Dr Alloush is convinced that the victims are mostly people who have been working for the regime.“They are soldiers or they are with the state security. There have been military attacks on government installations and on military positions,” he told RT. “‘Lots of those killed are not civilians, they are people affiliated with the government.”  The UN, US and the EU are pushing for President al-Assad to go. Russia is warning against the dangers of a Libyan scenario happening in Syria. But Dr Ibrahim Alloush believes the military intervention into Damascus has already started. “For several months now we have been witnessing ambushes, attacks, and we have been witnessing assassinations in Syria practised by so-called peaceful demonstrators,” said Alloush . “Syrian TV has been showing truckloads of arms being smuggled into Syria. Lots of money was being funneled into those groups undertaking military actions against the Syrian government. I do not know what you define as military intervention, but if you have an armed mutiny that is being financed and supported from abroad, I do not think you can call it a peaceful uprising,” he concluded.