0 SBY: Syria’s Assad Should Step Aside

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has called on his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad to give way to a new leader and allow peace to return to the war-torn country, just two months after he condemned foreign intervention in the raging conflict. Discussing the Syria conflict with visiting ulemas from the King Abdul Azis University in Saudi Arabia at his Bogor palace, Yudhoyono said on Monday that Assad’s resignation would allow a new, more popular leader to take over. 

“It is hoped that there will be a new leader who loves the people of Syria more and who can create peace that is acceptable to all and improve the situation,” Yudhoyono said, as quoted by presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha. According to Julian, Yudhoyono also said that the Indonesian government was worried about the prolonged conflict in Syria and that most important was to bring a halt to the cycle of violence there. “Secondly, the humanitarian assistance needs to be continuously stepped up, and it should be assured that our brothers and sisters there continue to receive it,” Julian said. 

The group of ulemas is led by Syekh Muhammad Ali As-Shobuni, who is a native of Syria and now an advisor to the World Muslim Council. As-Shobuni on Monday presented several books of Koranic interpretation to Yudhoyono. The group is due to visit Central and East Java and meet with local ulemas there. Teuku Faizasyah, the president’s key advisor on international relations, said “Indonesia has proposed three steps to end the conflict in Syria,” describing them as a cease fire, allowing humanitarian aid and a political transition toward a new regime. 

The call came after Yudhoyono rejected any foreign intervention in settling the conflict in Syria during a bilateral meeting with his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in November. “The two countries agreed that the political process in Syria must rest in the hands of the Syrian people themselves and the international community should provide the room for that,” Yudhoyono said after the meeting. Yudhoyono added that the two leaders also deplored the lack of interest among the international community in helping to bring an end to the conflict in Syria. 

“Whatever the country, they should care, but there are no signs that the conflict will end soon,” he said. Ahmadinejad said that the democratic process in Syria was entirely the right of the Syrian people. “Democracy cannot be force unto them by any other country,” Ahmadinejad said. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was also in Bali in November to attend the Bali Democracy Forum, said after a bilateral meeting with Yudhoyono at the time that the violence in Syria should be halted as soon as possible so as to prevent the fall of more civilian victims.

source : the jakarta globe