Lord Empey – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Empey on 2014-06-05.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whom they consider to be the legitimate government of Syria.

Baroness Warsi

While we consider the National Coalition the sole legitimate representatives of the Syrian people, it is not at present the government in Syria. The Coalition is working to realise the aspirations of the vast majority of Syrians for a democratic and pluralist future for their country. The Assad regime has lost all legitimacy by responding to the demands of its people for their basic rights and freedoms with escalating, and horrifying, brutality: using chemical weapons, heavy artillery and air power against civilians; unlawfully detaining and torturing its own people, including children; and preventing life-saving humanitarian support from getting to those who need it. The recent Syrian presidential elections were a parody of democracy and served only as a reminder of the continued illegitimacy of the Assad regime.