Syrian archbishop says government could defeat Islamic State if foreign nations cut support
April 28, 2015
A Syrian Catholic archbishop has described the country’s President Bashar Al Assad as “a good man,” although he quickly added that he did not intend a political endorsement.
In an interview for the Crux web site, Archbishop Jean-Clement Jeanbart of Aleppo denied that Christians in Syria have supported the government in the country’s bloody civil war. “We are not pro-Assad,” he said. “We’re in favor of a government that’s open to all denominations.” “Personally, I would say that Bashar al-Assad is a good man,” the Melkite Catholic archbishop said. Tacitly acknowledging the reports of war crimes by the Assad regime, he added, “That doesn’t mean he’s an angel.”
Archbishop Jeanbart said that the rise of the Islamic State could be stopped if mercenaries were blocked from entering the country through Turkey and Jordan; he called for the US to put pressure on Turkey, in particular, to stop the flow of new recruits for the jihadist regime. Syrian forces could defeat the Islamic State, he contended, if the terrorist forces did not have access to outside sources of equipment and manpower.
The Syrian archbishop said that international leaders could bring a halt to the fighting in his country, without any direct military intervention. “They just need to stop feeding the insurrection and terrorism,” he said.
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