How Is Syria’s Transitional Government Handling Criticism?

AlArabiya English

Syrian Foreign Affairs Official Dr. Najib Ghadbian explains how the transitional government is addressing criticism over representation and sectarian tensions. #Syria

Transcript

00:00And with that, there is also so much scrutiny on the transitional government.

00:04We had elections recently praised in some quarters,

00:08criticised in others for not having enough ethnic diversity,

00:12not having enough women represented,

00:15and we still see bouts of sectarian violence and ethnic violence across the country.

00:20How does the government address that sort of criticism?

00:24I think by first acknowledging those are real challenges.

00:31Those are real issues that we have to address.

00:37You know, any country that went through the post-conflict reconstruction,

00:42I mean, faced similar challenges.

00:45And there is a great deal of political will to address all of them.

00:50For instance, you know, the elections could have not happened.

00:53We could have not had, like, a normal elections when half of your population are displaced,

00:59when, you know, you don't have registry of so many people and addresses.

01:04So I think that the choice was to do, like, the semi-election,

01:09to have an electoral college, if you will, and from which you select people.

01:13I think that we will hopefully see that the appointment by the president

01:18is going to address some of the lack of representation.

01:21But there is no intention to exclude anyone, any community.

01:27And it was unfortunate, you know, there were the event in the coast,

01:31and finally in Suweda.

01:32I mean, the Suweda events had something to do with a troubling neighboring country called Israel.

01:38So that was difficult to really do.

01:42But definitely we want national solutions to these problems.

01:47We want to address all of these communities, I would say, legitimate demands to be included

01:54and to have equal citizenship for all.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended