 Everyone knows, President Jarba, he was, of course, born in Syria in the northern part of the country. He went to Beirut University, studied law. He has a badge of honor, having been arrested at least twice. Went back to Beirut after that. He has been a leader in the Syrian opposition, the Syrian Revolution, from the beginning. He played a major role in the Secretary of the Syrian National Coalition and was a founding member of the opposition coalition. We are very pleased to have him and his delegation. His delegation includes several people who are up here, two of whom will join President Jarba on the stage. But one person who won't is General Abdullah al-Bashir, who is the Chief of the Supreme Military Council of the Free Syrian Army. And General Bashir is right here. Thank you, General. It's great to have you here. It's a great signal to us, to your delegation, to Syrians, to see you all united and coordinated here. We also will have Michael Kilo, who will join us on the stage, member of the opposition coalition, and also Dr. Najib Garban, who is a special representative to the United Nations and the United States, who will also join us on the stage. Let me ask President Jarba to come to the stage, make his remarks. Our plan for this morning is to have the President's remarks. I have a couple of questions that we will start out in these chairs, joined by the other two that I mentioned. We will take your questions written down, passed over to my assistants, who are already collecting questions from you, and we will have an opportunity then to listen to President Jarba. So President Jarba, welcome. Thank you very much. Good morning. Good morning. I'm going to talk to Ertijal. As you know, any of his friends... Do I need a microphone? Okay, I'm good. Oh, it's working. Thank you. As you know, the Syrian crisis is in its fourth year. It's one of the most dramatic human catastrophes in our modern times. It's a very bad black comedy that is being played out by Bashar al-Assad and his cronies. You all know that in Syria there are 10 million people who have been displaced either within or out of Syria. There are 200,000 martyrs and there are thousands of injured people and handicapped. The crisis has become more than we Syrians can handle. The Syrians have gone out to demand freedom, dignity. The dignity which was taken away from them more than 40 years ago through the reign of the Assad family. The family that ruled Syria with an iron fist and deprived its people from all political and human rights. It's a rain that is similar to that in North Korea. As the father just has happened in North Korea, those two countries are the only two in this century that practice the worst kind of dictatorship against their own people. For God's sake, have you ever heard that a ruler bombards his own people with scud missiles or with airplanes or uses chemical weapons against his own people or using torture in prisons? All this exercise of violence, degradation, we experienced all that in Syria. I personally and many of my colleagues, we lived all our lives in Syria. We did not leave Syria except after the revolution because of the tyranny, the Assad tyranny. And because we were being followed, we left Syria. But many of our beloved ones, our dear friends, remain behind. Some were killed, some were in jail and some continue to live in Syria despite all the human tragedy that exists there. It's a great tragic situation. All efforts must come together to save the people of Syria from this bloody chain of events that continue to date and get worse and worse every day. We look forward to this visit. This is my first visit to Washington. We hope that the American public opinion will understand our cause. There is a misperception among the public opinion. This may be a shortcoming on our part. Damascus is the most continuously lived-in-city in the world. Muslims, Jews and Christians live together. Arabs and Kurds and Turkmen live there together. As well as all the nationalities that migrated to our country, like the Armenians, Circassians, they all lived in our country. We lived all together, Alawite, Sunni, Druze and all other sects. We have coexisted for hundreds of years. We never felt that we were different. I'm from a city called Qamishli. There, Arabs and Kurds coexist. There are also Circassians. There are Assyrians. There are Christians in all dominations, from Catholics to Orthodox Protestants. I studied at Protestant school in Qamishli and we coexisted Christians and Muslims, Arabs and Kurds together. We lived in peace and harmony. No difference. We lived together, ate together, traveled together. But the regime, with its tyrannical and persecutionary measures, pushed people using force. It completely controlled the livelihood of people. They confiscated their properties. They passed a law to nationalized lands, factories, and accordingly Christians migrated to Lebanon, to the states, to Canada. Bashar, who says that he protects the minorities, is really claiming that the minorities, before Bashar existed and will continue to exist after Bashar for hundreds of years, Damascus was the mecca for all people, from all over the world. Now, it is being said that the opposition, as Bashar claims, that we are a bunch of mercenaries, terrorists. Do you believe that? Are we terrorists to you? A terrorist, a children killer, is the one who bombs his own people, even using scud missiles? Is Bashar and his gang who usurped power in Syria and for usurped the rule in Damascus? Dear friends, we are not terrorists. We are not mercenaries. We are Syrians. We are part of the core of the Syrian people. Terrorism is the product of the regime of Bashar, and Americans have seen that firsthand in Iraq when Bashar al-Assad would send al-Qaeda operatives to blow up American soldiers on the streets in Baghdad. Al-Qaeda now exists in Syria because the regime took them out of prison to control its own people. Daesh, which is one of the worst factions of al-Qaeda, we fought against Daesh. To date, there is strong cooperation between Bashar and Daesh, but we fought Daesh since last December to date, and we liberated Hama and Idlib. And a large part of Aleppo and Syrian coast, Derizor, we liberated all these areas from that terrorist organization. Our brothers in Derizor today are fighting fierce battles against Daesh. There is another terrorist organization that operates in Syria. It kills Syrians daily and systematically, and on a sectarian basis, this is Hezbollah. This is the so-called Lebanese group with its Iranian controllers, with Iraqi militants who kill our people in Homs and Qamishli and elsewhere in Syria. We live under very difficult conditions, and we fight in even more difficult conditions. We have difficulty getting weapons, while Assad, Syria sends him airplanes, jet fighters, missiles, rockets, and he also gets support of Iranian mercenaries. And there is that aerial bridge between Damascus and Iran, and there is another one through the sea. Now we are seeking a political situation. We went to Geneva with a positive attitude. It was not easy to make that decision. But we took it for the best interest of Syrian national interest. And as Lakhdar-Librahimi said, the regime of Bashar was responsible for the failure of that political process. Now we are, and we will always be, with the political situation that protects Syria and maintains the cohesiveness of its land. A political situation in which we believe is civilian Syria, and I underscore the word civilian, diverse Syria, where there is a peaceful transfer of power. Minorities and majorities coexist. All the factions of Syrians coexist in harmony. We will always strive to reach a political solution, but the failure of Geneva, it failed. And now we are here in Washington to discuss with our friends how to revive a political solution. This will not happen by nominating this criminal Bashar al-Assad again for the presidency. Not after he has been killing his own people for three years, after he destroyed all the infrastructure in the country. He wants to run for office on the dead bodies of the Syrians. This is a farce. If it happens, it would be an international license for Bashar al-Assad to kill some more of his own people for many years to come. There has to be a stance now, a strong stance against this bloodthirsty tyrant. Also, you all know, when he used chemical weapons against his own people in Rift Amash, when President Obama raised the threatening stick against the regime along with the French and some of the Europeans. The regime surrendered its chemical weapons. So this regime understands only the language of power. And so we must all cooperate. We want now in the liberated areas, we are trying to build the states in these areas. And through SU or through an interim government, we are trying to set up an interim government there. We are trying to operate in these areas despite the terror that exists there. For months, I was unable to enter Syria, but after our war with Daesh, I went this month twice to Syria on the coast. I went to Maarat-e-Naman and Idlib. In these liberated areas, we want to construct, we want to work. But the air force of Assad burns and bombards our people in these areas on a daily basis. That stops us from making any progress in these areas. So we need a weapon to eliminate this thing so-called burning barrels that fall on our people. They fall on residential buildings. They kill civilians. There is a whole generation of Syrians who have difficulties getting education. We need to address that. We need to educate our children. If they continue to be deprived of education for a year or two, things will go out of hand. And there will be a generation, an uneducated generation, an illiterate generation, a generation that knows only the language of weapons and power. We don't want that. Therefore, the balance of power must be changed on the ground in order to open the door for a real political situation in Syria. I want to be ... is an area with an Armenian majority. Yet they were slaughtered. I went to that visit and after we liberated, not one single Armenian was killed. So those were lies by the regime. We are responsible people. We protect the people. On the other hand, this is really an open battle. Look at what Bashar regime does to Syrians and non-Syrians. If we want to end this tragedy, we must all speak in one voice against the nomination of this criminal for the presidency and to open the door for a political solution where Bashar is not part of the equation. Bashar does not own Syria. We do not own Syria. Syria is the property of all Syrians. We need an interim government that runs the country for a year and a half or two, that supervises new elections. And believe me, ladies and gentlemen, as soon as we get rid of the Bashar regime, 75% of the problems of Syria will be over. Thank you for being here. Thank you for listening and I wish you well. Goodbye. Mr. President, again, thank you for your remarks. You have taken this opportunity to introduce yourself, the coalition, the Syrian people to people in this room, but across the country. So we are very pleased that you've been able to do that. You addressed many of the problems of the Syrian opposition during your remarks. We read every day, and the American people read every day, and the world reads its newspapers. One of the things that the impression is that the regime has momentum now. The question for you is the regime winning in your view. What can the opposition do to reverse this momentum if it indeed exists? The Homs agreement, whereby there is evacuation from Homs, is on people's minds. What can you tell us about your plans for the immediate future? We cannot hear Mr. Jarba, obviously. Ladies and gentlemen, Homs, as you know, is an important symbol for the Syrian revolution. It's considered to be the core of the revolution. Inhabitants in Homs gave everything in order to pay the price for their freedom. What happened in Homs can hardly be repeated in any other city. There is a siege that has been going on for a year enough over Homs. It's completely besieged. Nothing gets in. No medication, no food, no water. And we have fighters and civilians in the city. And as you know, they were able to leave the city and move to the freed area. What is important for us as an opposition at this point is to preserve their lives. I mean, it's not the end of the world. I mean, in all battles, you have a rhythm. But Homs is a very important symbol. And with the determination of the Syrian people, with their patience and with their determination and endurance, they will gain back the city God's willing. Now, for us, it is not only about gaining the city or not or losing it. It's about the whole conflict. Even if Homs is completely controlled by the opposition, no one will be secure in Homs because of the bomb battles, because of the air raids, because of the missiles. So there are two factors for us. The first one is to have efficient weapons in order to try and face these attacks, including air raids, so we can change the balance of forces on the ground. When the balance of forces on the ground changes, this would allow for a genuine political solution. This is the plan of the opposition. It is not a war for the sake of a war. And we do not want the bloodshed to continue in Syria. Our main goal is to end the conflict. But how do we end this conflict? It can end in many ways. And one of the most important ways is to have a weapon that can retaliate, that can face the air raid, that can change the political and the practical balance of force on the ground, which will lead to a genuine political solution. As for the situation on the ground, it is not as bad as some believe, despite everything that's been happening, despite the situation in Homs, in Iran, in Deir Ezzor, in Idlib, in Aleppo, on the coast the opposition is moving forward, is gaining ground. And as we know, we are facing an enemy that is supported by Iran, by Hezbollah, by Russian little weapons. But despite that, after many years, we are still resisting. This is the heroic people, the Syrian people. And we should salute them for their courage, for their heroism, their determination. So again, the situation is not as bad as some believe. I'm talking about the situation on the ground. I mean, at the humanitarian level, it's a disaster, of course. But the situation on the ground is not as bad as some are trying to show. I mean, we're losing and gaining ground, as in all battles. And God's willing, we will be able to win many of these battles, as we did when we won over ISIL or Daesh. And we can win over the regime. But the main problem remains the air force that is making the life of the Syrian a nightmare. Thank you. I'm sorry. We need a microphone. Mr. President, thank you for that response. If you will stay right here. You have addressed, in your remarks, the question about other elements that are opposing Bashar al-Assad, the extremists, the terrorists. And you have distinguished yourself from those terrorists. There are those, however. There are voices still in the opposition that express support for Jamaat al-Nusra as an example. How should, again, we in the United States and the rest of the world understand the distinctions between these Islamists that you described? Well, as for extremism and as for al-Qaeda, we said more than once that we are against them and we fought them. Now, Western countries, including the United States, do understand that the coalition and the Free Syrian Army and we have the chief of staff, General Bashir, all of them know that we fought these terrorist organizations and al-Qaeda. As for the al-Nusra Front, we do not recognize this organization. We do not accept it. We are against al-Qaeda's ideology and this is very clear. We are very candid about it. We are not hiding behind our finger, as we say in Arabic. Al-Qaeda brought lots of foreign fighters to Syria. We also, many, many times, requested the Security Council to issue a binding resolution under Chapter 7 that will ask for the withdrawal of all foreign militias from Syria. We do not want to have one single foreigner in Syria, be it from al-Qaeda, from al-Nusra, from ISIL, from Hezbollah, from the Iranian mercenaries, the revolutionary guards, anyone. Everyone, every foreigner should leave Syria. As for the extreme ideologies, what we say in Syria is the following. The only judge will be the vote. Syrians will decide through elections what they want and we know the Syrians. Syrians are a moderate people. And now, of course, we are having these foreign ideas that are stranger to the Syrians that came to our country. But this is only temporary. Trust me. Syrians do not know terrorism. And al-Nusra and ISIL, for us, I mean, there's a difference between them. ISIL or Daesh never fights the regime. It's an ally of the regime. As for the al-Nusra Front, they are fighting the regime. But both of them are extremists. But ISIL is the worst kind of al-Qaeda, and we fought them again. And many of us died as martyrs fighting them, and everyone knows that. And we were able to liberate two-thirds of our territories from them. We in the coalition are against all sorts of al-Qaeda ideology, whatever they be. And we want all the foreign militias to leave Syria. Extremism and terrorism are synonyms. And we are against both. And we fought both. And we are standing on a firm ground. We fought terrorism. We fought al-Qaeda. And this organization, Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, ISIL, we were the one who expelled them from many of our territories. And I'm speaking for myself. I was not able to go to Syria when these organizations were in control. It is in our national interests before. It's been a Western interest. And now it's a common interest between us and the West. We have a national interest in Syria to get rid of extremism. When we freed our country from this extremism, I was able to go to Syria to talk with the people, to be with them. When they were there, I was targeted before the Americans and the Europeans and everyone was targeted. Thank you. A question from our audience. Should we negotiate? You've mentioned the Iranians. And the question is, should we negotiate with the Iranians to get a ceasefire for humanitarian purposes? You have described with great passion the humanitarian disaster in Syria. Is there an argument for negotiating with the Iranians on that issue, on the humanitarian issue, humanitarian access? Well, as you know, Iranians are part of the problem. And now they are a main part of the problem. When Mr. Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the United Nations, called on Iran to attend Geneva II, the invitation was accompanied with a condition to agree on the Geneva I communique, which is mainly concentrating on the transitory government releasing the detainees and withdrawing the army to its cousins. And you know about the communique of Geneva I. So if you want to attend a peace process, you have to agree on these conditions. It applies on Iran as well. This is a binding condition for any country attending Geneva II. But Iran did not want to agree on these conditions that were agreed upon in Geneva I. So Iran wants the crisis in Syria to go on. Iran does not want for Geneva II to succeed. And we all agreed, we and the friendly and not so friendly country agreed that the Geneva II conference should be a success. But Iran, as stated by its Minister of Foreign Affairs, did not want to accept the Geneva I conditions. So we believe that Iran does not want the conflict to end. So far Iran is still suppressing the regime. Iranians are fighting in Syria. Iran is a sponsor of Hezbollah. Iran requested Hezbollah to go to Syria and to fight in Syria. Hezbollah does not have any interest in fighting in Syria. Has Iran not decided that it should? So if at some point they would show that they have good intentions, if they decide to ask Hezbollah to withdraw and they withdraw their revolutionary guards, then we have no problem. We respect the Iranian people. It's a people of history. It's a people with a great civilization. But we have a problem with the rulers of Iran. As a people we respect the Iranians. But the problem is with the Mullah in control in Iran who want to take control of the region. And yesterday one of their leaders said that now Iran has borders on the Mediterranean. And this is something we should discuss all together. If Iran indeed attempts to change its intention, it's not a problem. It's not about only humanitarian problems. It's about strategy. If Iran change its position, and this is what we hope for, because we want Arab, Turks, Iranian and all other nationalities in the region, we want to peacefully coexist and to be good neighbors. This is what we are aiming for. If they change their position, we are open to any peaceful initiative. Thank you, Mr. President. Several people here are asking a similar question. You are in Washington, the reports are, you'll have an opportunity to see people in the State Department, President Obama, people in the White House. What specifically would you like the United States to do, or not to do, to help end the conflict? For example, is it funds? Is it weapons? Is it troops? Is it drones? Is it an attempt to restart the Geneva negotiations? Are there specific things that you want the United States to do to help end this conflict? We do not want from the West, from the United States, from the East. We do not want them to send their sons to our country. We do not want for Americans to die in Syria as they died in Afghanistan and Iraq. We do not want them to face terrorism. This is not what we want. This is something we never asked for. We did not ask for American warships to come to our sea. We do thank the United States for politically supporting us, supporting us at the Security Council and at many other levels, supporting us in the United Nations as a whole. The United States always supported us with any resolution emanating from the Security Council. Despite the ongoing Russian veto, and we do appreciate this position at the humanitarian level, the United States did a lot and we do thanks them. And we do hope that they will continue supporting us. On the issues that you mentioned, and the woman mentioned in the question, we do not, I mean, we do have a problem with the air forces, the air raids and the barrel bombs. This is making our life a nightmare. So we want weapons that would be able to neutralize the air force. And we commit, and we are willing, and American friends know that, they know that we have a clear position on this issue. We do commit, and again, we do not want lots of weapons in an unorganized way, but we need effective, efficient weapons that would be in the right hands, the hands that we know, the hands of professionals. This is what we want. And we commit to keep them in the right hands. We want also a political solution. It is not a war for the sake of war. Again, we do not want for this war to go on. We should work together towards a transition government, which is the main issue on the Geneva 1 and 2. This is the only solution to bring back stability and to allow for Assad to leave the countries. These are the two main issues that we want from the United States. We want them to pressure on this issue. Thank you, Mr. President. In the audience, we have a range of people, of course. There's a question here about the role of the private sector in bringing about a free Syria. What can the business community do, the international business community do, to bridge the sectarian differences and spur economic relief and recovery? I ask Mr. Michel Kilo to answer this question. The role of the international business community. Are there things that the business community can do to help end the conflict, to set the stage for recovery after the conflict ends? You know that the basic issue in Syria today is to end the killing. There is a reality that a large part of the infrastructure has been completely destroyed. 63% of the houses have been destroyed. More than two-thirds of the Syrian people have been displaced, and the economic life has been completely disrupted. So everybody is facing a real hardship. And this applies to everybody. Everybody suffers more inflation, rising prices, monopoly of goods, security organizations, which we call thugs. These are all tools that terrorize people. The priority now is for stopping the killing, so that we can maybe begin in reconstructing the areas that have been destroyed and resettle the people that have been displaced, and to get back the people to go about their daily lives and do their jobs. As for the future, Syria will be an open society for commercial, international commercial activities. We would welcome all kinds of economic activities and assistance. We realize that we can't do this on our own, but in order to restore Syria to what it was, a productive country, etc., we need international assistance. Syria or the future will not be closed politically, economically, commercially, or ideologically. We will be open to the whole world, and we would like to play a role regionally and internationally. It's a country of freedoms, will be open to international culture, and we will do our share. Thank you. I think we have time for one last question, Mr. President. And that is, as we look forward, as you look forward, many people have sketched out a scenario where Syria is partitioned, breaks into parts, breaks into pieces, the backbone of Syria, the eastern part. Can this be avoided? What is your sense when you look forward as the options for moving forward in a partitioned world or avoiding a partitioned world? If bipartisan will happen because in Syria there are the factors, ethnic factors, and the factors that are too diverse, well, this has been the situation for thousands of years. So these are not reasons for partition. This has happened since we left the Ottoman Empire. We have been a country of freedoms, and our constitution is influenced by the Napoleonic code, which we took as a guide. We are open to all the cultures of the world, and we have been so much close to the principles of the French Revolution. In Syria, a battle is being fought in Syria now. The regime is fighting every way, and they would like to restore things to the events before the 15th of March. If we go back to normalcy, there will be no reason for partition, but if the regime is defeated, then partition is a question mark. We want democracy in our country. We want a strong society. The revolution has as a slogan freedom for the Syrian people, freedom for the one Syrian people, not for a divided country. At least as far as the opposition is involved and the masses in Syria, any talk of partition, any even thought about partition, has no ground. The French have tried to divide Syria into five countries. One of them was an Alawite state. The Alawites themselves fought that partition, although it entailed creating an Alawite state. The Alawite fought alongside all the other Syrians in order to build a unified and wholesome Syria. If Bashar wants a partition, the Alawites in most part are against a partition, and thank you. Mr. President, let me thank you very much for spending this time with us, presenting the views of the Syrian opposition in this very difficult time. The humanitarian situation does not no respite from that. The political challenges are clear. We are very pleased to be able to give you the opportunity to make the case to the American people and the world community. We are glad you are here in Washington. Good luck in your meetings here. Please join me in thanking President Jarvis.