Muslim Brotherhood brands Assad as a "war criminal"

The Muslim Brotherhood in Syria has rejected the speech given by Bashar al-Assad on Sunday, saying that his words and presence no longer mean anything to Syrians. The Islamic movement branded the Syrian president as a “war criminal”. As such, said spokesman Zuhair Salem, Assad should be subjected to a fair trial.

“Bashar al-Assad cannot see that his cruelty and army have created 60,000 martyrs,” he added. “He doesn’t appear to be capable of understanding the amount of pain caused by his criminal gangs.” Nor, he pointed out, does Assad seem to be aware of the reality of the revolution’s motivation, dimension and prospects as a continuation of the Arab Spring revolutions in other countries.

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The people in rebellion are anything but “terrorists” as Assad claims, said Salem. “This shows that he does not even know his own people, even though he was born and has lived among the Syrians.”

In the Brotherhood’s eyes, Assad’s speech at the weekend has ended any hope for successful political initiatives to bring the crisis to a satisfactory conclusion. “Assad made it clear that he does not want anyone to come to Syria to tell us what to do,” noted Salem. “It is clear that his courtesy to intermediaries is little more than soft soap to keep them happy while he promises his killers more power and wealth at the expense of innocent people.”

In conclusion, the Brotherhood’s spokesman said, “Bashar al-Assad no longer means anything to the Syrians and cannot have any role in Syria’s future; in short, neither he nor his initiative are of any concern to us.”