Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2013-03-13-Speech-3-268-000"
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"en.20130313.25.3-268-000"2
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"Mr President, Syria is, of course, anything but a democracy, but not many countries in the Middle East are, including of course its fiercest critic, Saudi Arabia. Nor for that matter are all of Mr Assad’s opponents in Syria democrats.
The Syrian government’s handling of the protest was, from the beginning, grossly disproportionate, but its brutality has sometimes been matched by the opposition. We can judge a regime also by its substantive policies. Before the conflict, women were relatively liberated in Syria. Religious minorities, particularly Christians, were free to worship without interference, although, of course, some Christians have been attacked by Islamist members of the opposition.
It is all very well to bemoan the huge humanitarian toll of the conflict, but that is what happens when neither side is capable of winning decisively. It is also what happens when the protagonists are armed, albeit covertly, by outsiders.
How long will it be before the armed forces of Member States are dragged into the conflict and body bags start to be flown home to Europe? How ethical was it, and is it, for the West to encourage other people to risk their lives to advance the West’s political agenda: that is, depriving Iran of an ally and Israel of an adversary? Was regime change really worth 70 000 lives?
The priority now must be to bring the bloodshed to an end. That can happen only when there are talks, without preconditions, on neutral territory."@en1
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