Syrian foreign minister calls for national unity government
In an exclusive interview with Al-Monitor, Walid Moallem, Syria's minister of foreign affairs and expatriates, said that the Syrian National Coalition's rejection of a resolution condemning terrorism was "unfortunate and strange."
GENEVA — Walid Moallem, Syria’s minister of foreign affairs and expatriates, called for a national unity government including a more expansive Syrian opposition than those represented by the National Syrian Coalition of Revolutionary and Opposition Forces (SOC) at the Geneva talks.
“I don’t see the only opposition as the Coalition. There are other opposition who must join so we can have a national unity government,” he told Al-Monitor during an exclusive interview shortly after the close of the talks.
Moallem said he found it “unfortunate and strange” that the SOC rejected a Syrian government proposal brought forward during the talks that rejected terrorism.
“It was really astonishing that this opposition refused [the declaration on terrorism],” he said, adding that ordinary citizens from other parts of the world would have accepted a similar statement denouncing terrorism.
