MOSCOW. March 4 (Interfax) - Manaf Tlass, a former brigadier-general of the Syrian Republican Guard who sided with the opposition and ultimately defected to Turkey in July 2012, explains his visit to Moscow by the desire to look for ways to end the blood-shedding conflict.
"It is necessary to stop bloodshed in Syria. It is necessary to break this circle of violence. Russia's political weight is quite significant to help find a solution, which implies that, instead of continuing confrontation, dialogue should be arranged," Tlass said in an interview on the Voice of Russia radio.
Asked what precisely he expects from Moscow, Tlass said he believes "Russia can help preserve Syria as a state - I mean its integrity, its complicated structure with its ethnic and religious minorities, its infrastructure, and its secular nature."
"The state and the regime are not the same. It is the state, not the regime, which should be rescued. We need to realize that we can help preserve Syria as a state only by distancing ourselves from the current Syrian regime," he said.
Tlass categorically disagreed with the Syrian leaders' claims that only religious extremism or anarchy could be an alternative to President Bashar al-Assad. "We say: there is an alternative. There is a third party in Syria, which is not with the regime but which is not with the extremists, either. Most Syrians do not want to choose between these two extremes but want to live their lives in a stable and safe state. And Russia could support the moderate forces in Syria who favor the golden mean," he said.
In commenting on a remark by Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Mualem, who visited Moscow earlier this week, that Damascus is prepared for negotiations with the opposition, Tlass said, "I do not trust these statements. I perfectly know the Syrian government structures from within. And I remember very well that, throughout this crisis, the government has repeatedly given encouraging promises but then failed to keep them. This government has lied too much to be believed now."
"In any case, the principal precondition for beginning a dialogue is to cease fire in Syria. Planes should stop bombardments. Rocket attacks should also be stopped. The city of Aleppo was recently shelled by Scud rockets possessed by the government. What a dialogue can be when the firing is continuing?" he said.
Fire in Syria could be ceased "under the aegis of Russian-U.S. mediation and, surely, under the UN aegis," Tlass said. "The conflicting parties, not to mention the regime, cannot guarantee a ceasefire. It is the leading powers of the world that can act as such guarantors," he said.
Asked to comment on reports that some in the opposition are against a dialogue with the government, Tlass said, "The opposition favors democracy, and this means that there can be and should be different opinions. But there are points on which everyone agrees. All opposition members want this regime to go. And at the same time the entire opposition wants people to stop being killed and the bloodshed stopped."
Tlass led an elite unit of the Syrian armed forces up to the summer of 2012, when he harshly criticized President Bashar al-Assad's actions and secretly left Syria soon afterwards. Some international mediators pin special hopes on the general as a figure important for the transition period in Syria.