THE mayor of Compiègne Philippe Mariniwhen he was senatorchaired the Franco-Syrian friendship group. He reacts to the fall of Bashar Al Assad.
“Should we rejoice at the fall of a dictatorial regime or be worried about the arrival of Islamists at the head of the Syrian state?
“Will Syria become a state led by jihadists who strictly apply Sharia law and exercise a repressive policy towards religious minorities? We can fear it but it is not certain. Will the winners agree to come to terms with Syrian civil society? I don’t know anything about it. We don’t know the winners well. They are certainly linked to Turkey, which has its interests in Syria but which exercises a moderating influence there. The leaders of the movements taking power in Syria are in any case hostile to Daesh, another family of fundamentalist Islamism. We do not know how this Syrian republic will position itself.
Should we be worried about France’s internal security?
You have to be attentive. For the moment, this is moving more in favor of the return to Syria of people who fled the regime of Bashar El Assad. For example, Syrian refugees in Germany. We are in a complex world. Syria is a crossroads of influence. Does France still have the capacity to be present in Syria, to have its information sources?
“Bashar Al Assad, a man of many facets”
Syria needs to be rebuilt…
The country has been in a state of civil war since 2011. A regime of international sanctions then hindered its reconstruction. International aid returned after the earthquake. The country is subject to a barter economy. The currency there collapsed at the same time as the Lebanese pound, supported by drug trafficking.
You have been to Syria several times, as part of your parliamentary missions. Has your vision of Head of State Bashar El Assad changed in fifteen years?
Bashar Al Assad, that was the mystery. I went there last time in 2010. A period during which Nicolas Sarkozy’s France moved closer to Syria. Bachar El Assad is a man who has many facets. He has a cultured and westernized appearance. But there is a different reality, due to the political system of which he was the willing prisoner.
In 2013, Philippe Marini saw in Bachar El Assad “a good politician”, with a mind “more modern than public opinion”
In September 2013, Senator Marini declared himself hostile to a French military offensive in Syria “outside of a UN mandate“. “Syria is a country in civil war,” he explained. A violent and dangerous war for its population and for the neighboring countries of Iran, Lebanon, Iraq, Turkey… But destroying the sovereign installations will lead to an erasure of the State, favorable to the fair of strife and the rise of jihadist groups.”
On Bachar El Assad, whom he met in 2010, Philippe Marini said: “Syria is a harsh, dictatorial and police regime. Bachar El Assad is a good politician. He is a head of state at the head of an authoritarian regime, but he has a more modern mind than people might think. He is the head of a regime which reigns over a country in civil war. We must not think that the Syrian population is only made up of opponents. In Syria, there is a strong divide. We cannot stay at the head of a country in civil war for two and a half years without a minimum of support.”
