Britain: There are three main reasons for rejecting the “election play” of Bashar al-Assad

The British Special Representative to Syria, Jonathan Hargreaves, said that there are three main reasons for rejecting the presidential elections that the Assad regime is conducting in its areas of control, stressing that they are “illegitimate and unhelpful for the political solution and peace process in the country.

This came in an online press briefing by Hargreaves, and confirmed that his country rejects the “election play” of Bashar al-Assad because of its violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2254.

Hargreaves added, that there is a large number of Syrians who are unable to participate, as the elections do not include all parts of Syria, in addition to the presence of millions of Syrians immigrants and refugees around the world, as well as tens of thousands of detainees who were deprived of voting.

Hargreaves considered that the normalization of countries with the Assad regime “is not beneficial at this time,” because it will only deepen the errors in governance in Syria, without it being in the interest of the Syrian people, or achieving stability in Syria.

And he indicated that his country had contacted its allies in the region, who “denied the intention of normalization with the regime,” affirming with them the British viewpoint that “the time is not appropriate”, and he ruled out using the results of the current elections as an excuse for normalization.

Polling stations opened their doors in areas controlled by the Assad regime yesterday, Wednesday, for a presidential election announced by its “Applause Council” on April 18th.

According to the figures of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), about 6.6 million Syrians have become refugees since 2011, while 6 million and 702 thousand have been displaced.