News | 25 05 2020
According to the special sources of Rozana, top figures of the Syrian regime refused to grant travel permits to some guests of the Syrian National Dialogue Conference in Sochi that Russia called for.
Despite the boycott of the Syrian opposition, which is represented by the Supreme Negotiating Body, the United States, Britain and France, the conference was held on January 30, 2018 in Black Sea Resort of Sochi. Opposition figures from Damascus, Cairo and elsewhere were invited.
Some of the invited guests were unable to travel to the Conference. According to special sources of Rozana, Ali Mamlouk, head of the National Security Bureau of the Syrian regime, refused to grant permission to travel from within Syria to some guests of the Sochi Conference.
According to the sources, the Syrian Intelligence refused to release the member of "Qamh Movement" (an opposition Syrian body led by oppositionist Haytham Manna and managed from inside Syria) Majid Habo in order for him to attend the Conference, indicating that he was detained not long after returning to Syria to resolve his security situation. A Russian plane transferred some guests from the "Qamh Movement" through the Turkish capital Ankara to Sochi despite their presence inside Syria.
The National Security Bureau of the Syrian regime informed one of the guest members of the opposition list, Randa Kassis, head of the Movement for a Pluralistic Society, that she was banned from travelling after arriving at the Syrian capital, Damascus, in order to travel to Sochi. Other 40 internal parties’ candidates were prevented from going too.
The Syrian regime transferred its supporters and members of the National Progressive Front (a coalition of Syrian parties, including the ruling Baath Party and its allies) and some independents from the parties inside Syria on board Cham Wings Airlines through Damascus International Airport.
During the meetings, the pro-regime delegates clashed with each other. The meeting witnessed an exchange of trash talks between the oppositionist "Fateh Jamous" (Syrian oppositionist from Lattakia and born in 1948) and the Syrian actor "Bashar Ismail." Ismail told Jamous "sit down" after he refused to give him the floor to speak.
Haytham Manna, head of the Qamh Movement and the Secretary-General of the National Democratic Movement, attacked the delegates of the regime, saying: "If your large number is strengthening you, we could have brought more people with us had not the Syrian Intelligence prevent many members of the National Democratic Movement from travelling." The delegates then responded: “stop the nonsense. This is not true.”
According to the sources, Ahmed al-Jarba prevented the head of the Moscow platform, Qadri Jamil, from leaving the meeting in the aftermath of the clashes.
The UN envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, attended Sochi Conference without stepping on the platform, and the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, considered that the Sochi Conference will contribute to supporting the Geneva negotiations, which aim at reaching a political settlement in Syria.