“We want a unified decentralized country with a secular democratic system that achieves good management of regional, ethnic and religious diversity and provides development for all,” said attorney Issa Ibrahim, spokesman for a group of politicians from the Alawite sect, to Al Jazeera Net, after meeting them together with the first secretary of the Russian permanent diplomatic mission to the nations United in Geneva, Sergey Metoshin.
According to the source, the meeting was an attempt by the Russian side to "find out the Alawite opinion of Syria regarding what is happening in the country outside the official frameworks."
Regarding the objectives and agenda of the meeting, attorney Issa Ibrahim told Al-Jazeera Net, "We are presenting our point of view to all parties, and we look at what the other party has, it is a process of exchanging details, explanations and positions, and it is not possible to link the meeting with developments related to Caesar's law, it is a different matter."
Ibrahim added that the importance of this meeting is that "we were able for the first time to deviate from the context that says that there is a Sunni revolution on the Alawite system, and our message was that: There is a system of a variety of clashes as well as a variety of opposition, and both use societal sectarian nervousness to achieve political purposes."
Ibrahim added, "It was important that we communicate to the Russians that we are looking for a citizenship state that has no place for quotas, and that there is a spatial overlap between the Syrians that does not make a place for quotas, nor does it make separation a role."
The group of Alawite politicians had published yesterday, Saturday, a clarification regarding the meeting that took place on June 15, "after leaking an incorrect copy of the deliberations that took place at the meeting," according to what the group announced.
The experience of the Russian Federation
"During the meeting, the group stressed the refusal to link the future of the Alawite sect to the fate of the regime," and the experience of the Russian Federation could be very useful, to enable the Syrians to reach a model of governance acceptable internally and globally, the source told Al Jazeera Net.
He added that "the Alawite community preferred the Russian presence in its regions to the Iranian presence, due to cultural considerations related to the ability to harmonize and interact with this presence, due to the approach of life approaching with Russian culture unlike the closed Iranian culture, knowing that this feeling began to gradually decline because of the Alawites feeling that intervention The Russian came in favor of the regime more than it was in the interest of the Syrians, including the Alawites, "according to the source.
He stated that "the Alawite community will not accept under any circumstances that the regime take it hostage, or that the regime be described as a sect system where it is a diverse sect class system, and the system should not be allowed to participate in national talks or dialogue as a representative of the Alawis."
The writer and political analyst Omar Kush told Al-Jazeera Net that the Russians are exploring the atmosphere by meeting with Alawite groups and other opposition figures in Germany, which are attempts to send messages that there are steps towards a change in the Syrian regime, and that it is possible to abandon Bashar al-Assad, and "we will witness meetings with Yet with the opposition in its various formations and with the components, including the Kurds. "
Cush does not believe that this move from the Russian side came based on international understandings, "but there may be messages to the Americans after the Russians felt that they were being targeted by Caesar's law, and that Assad became a burden on them, and what the Russians and Americans agree upon will be blessed by the rest of the countries."
"The option of decentralization is one of the options that Russia is working on, and the proof of that is that when it called for the Sochi Conference for the Syrian Dialogue, and it presented a decentralized and federal system, the invitation was on the basis of components, and sponsored the representation of the various minorities, whether religious or national, despite the fact that the majority In the interest of the Syrian regime, and any upcoming rule will be regional and confederate rule, and the extent to which this is achieved and how it is achieved is linked to the seriousness of the actors involved in finding a solution. "