Iranians Following Events In Syria, Anticipate Fall Of Regime, Says Green Coordination Council

In a letter to the Supreme Council for the Leadership of the Syrian Revolution, the Coordination Council of the Green Path of Hope has said that Iranians are closely following developments as they unfold in Syria and anticipate the impending fall of Bashar Assad’s authoritarian regime.

The council, which is seen as the Green Movement’s highest decision-making body, argued that the Syrian regime’s violent crackdown on opposition protests had even “forced foreign-policy makers within the Iranian government to rethink their unwavering support for the ruling Baath party.” The statement praised the sacrifices made by the Syrian people and expressed hope that the strides made in the country would finally “bring an end to the life of a state that has refused to listen to its citizens’ just voice of protest.”

The United Nations has estimated that since the eruption of anti-regime protests in Syria some seven months ago, around 2,700 civilians have been killed across the country, the majority of them protesters and local residents shot with live ammunition by the security forces and army. Thousands more have been detained or held incommunicado at unknown locations and under severe torture. Over a hundred people have reportedly died in detention in highly suspicious circumstances.

On 29 September, the Supreme Council for the Leadership of the Syrian Revolution issued a statement addressed to the people of Iran, explaining that the Iranian regime’s stance towards the crackdowns in Syrian should not entail the severing of ties between the two countries’ peoples.

Despite the extensive support for the Syrian uprising among ordinary Iranians including Green Movement supporters, the regime in Tehran has chosen to side with the Assad regime in its brutal crackdown on dissidents.

“We hope that the [Iranian] government, which claims to support resistance movements and to carry on the Iranian Revolution’s stance against injustice, does not continue its support for an oppressive regime whose brutality and tyranny have been proven to the entire world,” said the statement by the Syrian council’s politburo.

Letter by the Coordinating Council of the Green Path of Hope

To the respectful Supreme Council for the Leadership of the Syrian Revolution,

Please accept the warm greetings of your Iranian sisters and brothers,

The people of Iran are following the events in Syria and the struggles of its oppressed and courageous people against the country’s authoritarian rulers carefully and with concern. The commendable resistance and solidarity shown by your Muslim nation, with its close to 3,000 martyrs, the tens of thousands of missing, wounded, imprisoned and displaced, shall go on to bring an end to the life of a state that has refused to listen to its citizens’ just voice of protest, and has sacrificed the fundamental human rights of its people for the sake of its own interests. Blatant injustices that have even forced foreign-policy makers within the Iranian government to rethink their unwavering support for the ruling Baath party in Syria.

The widespread uprising of the peoples of the Middle East and North Africa against tyrannical and oppressive regimes, constitute a grand and rare movement in the history of this region. These developments and the outcome of the peoples’ struggles in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya promise a bright future for all the freedom-seekers of the region, [a future in which] they will be able to determine their destiny by relying on the capacities of their own nations.

Undoubtedly, the nations of Iran and Syria share a common position and understanding in their support for the freedom movements of the region, be it the justice-seeking struggles of the free people of Palestine or the uprisings of Yemen and Bahrain in the quest for freedom.

The Green Movement of the Iranian people, which was born in the course of a pervasive struggle against the manifestations of authoritarianism, corruption and devastating inadequacies in the Islamic Republic and for the realisation of the legitimate human rights of the Iranian people, has continuously stressed the importance of the peaceful coexistence of different religions, beliefs and ethnicities in the country and the wider region as an irrefutable principle. The foreign policy of any country must first and foremost serve the interests of the people of that country as well as respect for human dignity and the right to determine one’s destiny for all other nations.

What’s been taking place in our region these days exemplifies the novelty and importance of the people’s will; this is a reality to which dictatorial regimes are turning a blind eye to. We hope that with the victory of the pain-stricken Syrian nation, the winds of freedom, democracy and equality will soon blow over your land and that the sorrow and sadness of these days will soon be driven out from the face of your country.

The prayers and best wishes of the imprisoned leaders and activists of the Green Movement as well as [the thoughts of] the free greens of Iran, are with freedom-seekers in Syria.

The Coordinating Council of the Green Path of Hope