Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations, Bashar Jaafari, said that the Syrian crisis will be solved at the right moment, when the internal, regional and international dimensions of the war positively overlap.

He added that such a solution is not simple and involves aspects that the Syrian government cannot control on its own. 

“We can address the internal issues. We can even relatively impact the Arab and regional dimension of the crisis,” he said. “But the Syrian government cannot address the international dimension alone. From here stems the necessity of calling on our friends to help us deal with the international community.”

Jaafari, who visited Detroit last week for an iftar dinner, sponsored by the Syrian American Forum, told The Arab American News that part of the Syrian crisis has to do with international political conflicts that are taking place on Syrian soil. 

The ambassador said that some Arab regimes are promoting “terrorism” in Syria, under false premises, like jihad, and supporting the “so-called Syrian Revolution.”

Jaafari added that the Syrian people and the general public have realized that the war in Syria is not against the Syrian government only, but against the government, people, state, institutions and army.

“Destroying the country’s infrastructure is not the work of an honorable opposition,” he said. “Assassinating people, and killing them, and inciting sectarianism, are not the work of an honorable opposition. Suicide bombing, declaring an Islamic state and killing one another is not politics; it’s terrorism.” 

He said that the armed opposition is a tool, controlled by foreign intelligence agencies, but that the Syrian army has halted the efforts to destroy the Syrian state.

Jaafari (R) pictured with Archbishop Louka Al-Khour, who both visited Detroit last week.

Jaafari added that Israeli interference in Syria is obvious and scandalous, saying that armed opposition groups, along with the Arab and non-Arab regimes that stand behind them, have confirmed ties with Israel. 

“What is happening in Syria is part of a larger project within the entire region. The so-called Arab Spring is spilling Arab blood,” said the ambassador. “The chaos that is taking place in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Yemen and the Salafi experience in Lebanon, along with the problems in Turkey and the Arab Gulf countries, have proved that what is going on in Syria is part of a scenario by one side that wants to control the ideology of the Arab nation and steal its resources.”

Jaafari added that the aim of these events is to service Israeli interests, by breaking Arab societies into smaller sectarian entities to reinforce the Judaism of Israel.

“They want to destroy the beautiful mosaic that we live in, which was the reason for our success as human societies,” he said. “But the project of the Arab Spring has failed. I am optimistic. Now we have moved from the defensive phase to the offensive phase, diplomatically, politically and militarily. There is optimism about ending the crisis soon.”

Jaafari was born in Damascus in 1956. He began his diplomatic career as the third secretary of the Syrian embassy in Paris in 1983. He has several degrees, including a masters in translation from Damascus University and a PhD in political science from the University of Sceaux in Paris. He became Syria’s ambassador to the UN in New York in 2006.

He explains that the Syrian government has agreed to go to Geneva II, a long-awaited international conference for peace in Syria, but the opposition cannot agree on who will represent it at the conference.

“The Syrian government is ready to attend. The world knows the problem is not in Damascus; it is in Washington, and Paris, and Rome, and capitals involved in the crisis,” he said. “They keep postponing the conference. The problem is with them, not with us.”

Jaafari says that the Syrian government is looking to meet with political opposition that does not call for foreign intervention, or support terrorism, to rebuild Syria.

He says that the Syrian army’s resilience in the war has caused many western nations to rethink their stand on the conflict.

“The change is not out of love for the Syrian people,” he said. “It is interests and the balance of power. The Syrian crisis has rearranged international geopolitics, and its outcome will decide the future of the world.”

Jaafari acknowledged the need for reform in Syria and admitted that the government has committed mistakes.

“But fixing those mistakes does not mean starting a collective suicide,” he said, referring to the people who took up arms against the government.