Assad 'didn't seize opportunity' to engage with Syrian people: Qatar PM

DOHA: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad failed to engage with his people and address issues like the return of refugees during a period of calm in the country’s war, Qatar’s prime minister said Saturday.

“Assad didn’t seize these opportunities to start engaging and restoring his relationship with his people, and we didn’t see any serious movement, whether it’s on the return of the refugees or on reconciling with his own people,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani said at the Doha Forum for political dialogue.

Qatar — which gave early support to the rebels after Assad’s government crushed a peaceful uprising in 2011, leading to the civil war — remains a fierce critic of the Syrian leader but is calling for a negotiated end to the fighting.

Sheikh Mohammed said the world had been “surprised” by the speed of a recent rapid advance by Islamist-led rebels in Syria and cautioned that the situation might become “more and more dangerous”, threatening a return to a more intense level of civil war.

He added such an outcome would “damage and destroy what’s left, if there is not any sense of urgency to start putting (in place) a political framework for what’s happening over there… in order to find a political solution”.

The foreign ministers of Turkey, Iran and Russia were due in Doha on Saturday for expected talks on Syria following lightning gains by the Islamist-led rebels.

All three of those powers were involved in the Astana process, which began in 2017 with the aim of ending Syria’s civil war and were expected in the Qatari capital during the Doha Forum.

Ankara, with ally Doha, has historically supported some anti-government forces in Syria, while Moscow and Tehran are crucial allies of Assad, supporting his attempts to quash the rebellion.

Russia and Turkey brokered a 2020 ceasefire in Syria’s northwestern Idlib region, at that time the last major rebel bastion in the country.