With the UAE and other Gulf states joining the US-led coalition to reverse ISIL’s successes in Iraq and Syria and eliminate its poisonous misinterpretation of Islam, one question quickly comes to the fore: should Syrian president Bashar Al Assad be seen as part of the solution or part of the problem?
The answer can be found in what has happened since the start of the uprising in Syria in 2011. The protests began peacefully and with very modest calls for reforms that would put the country on a more democratic path. Mr Al Assad pretended to accede but didn’t fulfil his promises and instead unleashed the military on peaceful protesters.
Having thus started the civil war himself, he then released Islamistsinmates from Syria’s prisons, creating the basis for the radical groups that now include ISIL. While those groups flourished, he concentrated his military forces on attacking moderate opposition groups.
Because of Mr Al Assad’s refusal to make even the most minimal concessions to the opposition movement, 190,000 Syrians are dead – some from chemical weapons deployed by his forces – and the country is in ruins.
Part of the solution? Mr Al Assad is the root of the problem in Syria. The civilised world is wholly justified to shun his help.
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