Syria's Brotherhood condemns Assad, international community

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InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5

BEIRUT -- Syria's Muslim Brotherhood denounced on Sunday President Bashar al-Assad, his allies Iran and Russia, and the international community's for its "silence" and failure to protect civilians.

In a statement issued amid raging battles in Syria's commercial capital Aleppo, the influential Islamist movement said Assad was "legally and morally responsible for the death of every victim in Syria."

The Brotherhood also said that both Iran and Russia -- the powerful allies of the embattled Assad regime -- were "drowning in the blood of the Syrian people."

"Neither the Russians nor the Iranians will relieve (Assad) of responsibility for his crimes," it added.

The statement was released as troops pushed an offensive for a second day in a row on rebel-held districts of Aleppo, the key city in northern Syria.

Russian Foreign Minister "Sergei Lavrov gave Bashar al-Assad the green light to carry out a massacre," it said.

The Brotherhood also said the international community was "a partner" to violence in Syria, "by standing silent for too long... and failing to respect its obligation under international law to protect civilians."

Echoing a statement issued earlier on Sunday by the opposition Syrian National Council -- in which the Brotherhood plays an important role -- the exiled Islamist group warned of an imminent "massacre" in Aleppo.

It also accused Assad's regime of failing to deliver basic services to much of Aleppo's population.

"There is no running water in the houses, nor is there flour in the bakeries," it said. "There is no medicine in the pharmacies, nor any other kind of service being delivered."

The Muslim Brotherhood was banned in Syria in 1963. Many of its members fled the country following a revolt that was violently suppressed in 1982, leaving nearly 20,000 people dead according to estimates.

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