Syrians Opposed to Disintegration of Their Country: Top Adviser
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A senior adviser to the head of the Syrian Council of Ministers underlined that the people of the crisis-hit country are entirely against the breakup of the country or a federal system of government.
Speaking to the Tasnim News Agency, Abdul-Qader Azouz denounced plots hatched to disintegrate Syria or push it toward federalism, saying that such plots cannot succeed.
He added that speaking of federalism in Syria, particularly in its political sense, is unacceptable because of a number of reasons.
First of all, Azouz said, according to its constitution, Syria is a unified land with national sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The second reason, he underlined, is that the Arab country’s people have always supported their national integrity and opposed the Sykes–Picot Agreement some 100 years ago.
The Sykes-Picot Agreement, officially known as the Asia Minor Agreement, was a secret agreement between the governments of the United Kingdom, Ireland and the French Third Republic, with the assent of the Russian Empire, defining their proposed spheres of influence and control in Southwestern Asia should the Triple Entente succeed in defeating the Ottoman Empire during World War I.
The Agreement, which was signed on May 16, 1916 and was exposed to the public on November 23, 1917, is considered to have shaped the region, defining the borders of Iraq and Syria.
Syria has been gripped by civil war since March 2011 with various terrorist groups, including Daesh, currently controlling parts of it.
According to a new report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research, the conflict has claimed the lives of over 470,000 people, injured 1.9 million others, and displaced nearly half of the country’s pre-war population of about 23 million within or beyond its borders.
