Bled, 3 September (STA) – The international community must put pressure on both the Syrian regime and the opposition to implement the peace plan of former UN envoy Kofi Annan. Otherwise the war will spread throughout the region and could cause millions of deaths, Ribal al-Assad, a representative of the Syrian opposition, told the STA.

Speaking for the STA on the margins of the Bled Strategic Forum, the exiled cousin of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad urged utmost caution, labelling the Middle East as “a bubbling volcano” that will erupt in a great regional war if anything goes wrong.

Ribal al-Assad noted that the uprising in Syria started as it did in other Arab countries, “where people want change, freedom, dignity and economic prosperity”.

Syrians from all parts of the country and different ethnic and religious groups rose together, asking for changes. The regime would not have lasted long in a peaceful opposition and instead of moving towards reforms, it militarised the uprising indirectly through the security services, he said.

The regime could not have survived a peaceful uprising for very long, because it could not have kept killing unarmed people, as nobody would accept that. But it is easy to make people believe that Syria is fighting insurgents if the regime can show foreign fighters on TV.

“Other countries in the region have fallen into the regime’s trap, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar,” Ribal al-Assad continued. Instead of keeping the uprising peaceful, they started arming the opposition and establishing TV channels that promote religious hatred.

He believes that this has to be stopped immediately, not least because Syria is not the only country in the region with various sects. The infighting is already spreading to Lebanon and even Turkey, and it could engulf the whole area.

“People should have listened to what former Russian President [Dmitry] Medvedev said… He said that any attack on Syria or Iran would lead to a regional nuclear war,” Ribal al-Assad says, adding that “Syria has become a proxy battlefield for everyone”.

Annan’s peace plan had no chance of success, as it was based on stopping the violence on both sides of the conflict, but countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar continue arming the opposition, he notes. According to him, Annan’s successor Lakhdar Brahimi does not stand a significant chance of success either, despite both him and Annan being competent men.

“The international community should sit together and put pressure on the regime and the opposition to come together and implement the Kofi Annan plan,” Ribal al-Assad said.

He added that the entire opposition must be united so that not only one diaspora group – the Syrian National Council, of which about 80% of the members are from the Muslim Brotherhood, will be able to present itself as the representative of the Syrian nation.

Al-Assad is not very optimistic about the future of the country, as everybody is continuing the arms race. A catastrophe in Syria will affect everybody, he said. The best thing is to stop immediately, otherwise there will be chaos.