Muslim Brotherhood in Syria rejects Iranian offer over regime change

A spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria has confirmed that it has received an offer from the government in Iran over regime change. Omar Al-Mushawah confirmed statements attributed to Mohammad Farouk Tayfour, the Brotherhood’s Deputy Comptroller-General in Syria, that Iran has offered to convince President Bashar Al-Assad to hand over the reins of government to the Islamic movement in return for it sitting with Iranian officials.

Speaking on the telephone to Turkey’s Anadolu Press Agency about the doubts that such an offer was made, Al-Mushawah said: “This is not something that we are proud of, but we have revealed details of this offer in order to stress the firmness of our position, a position adopted by all the Syrian resistance groups towards Iran; how can we agree to sit with Iran while it is a key tool used by the Syrian regime to kill its own people?”

According to Tayfour, who is also the Deputy Chairman of the National Coalition, Iran has made several offers recently, one of which included regime change. Iran, he claimed, is willing to abandon its demand that Assad must stay in control in Damascus.

The National Coalition’s general assembly held in Istanbul on Monday reaffirmed its rejection of any Iranian role in a political solution for the Syrian crisis “because it is complicit in the killing of Syrians”.

However, Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN Special Envoy to Syria, insisted on the importance of Iran’s role in the political solution during the recent Geneva II Conference. Moreover, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced recently his willingness to be a mediator between the Assad regime and the opposition.

Since March 2011, Syrian opposition groups have demanded an end to the 40 year rule of the Assad family and called for the establishment of a democratic state. The Syrian regime adopted a military option to stop civil pro-democracy protests, taking Syria into a bloody civil war which has claimed the lives of over 133,000 people.