Britain, Germany, Italy, the United States and France refused to recognize the upcoming presidential elections in Syria as fair. A joint statement by the heads of the foreign affairs agencies of the five countries was published on the website of the US Department of State.
The document was published on the 10th anniversary of the outbreak of the Syrian conflict. The minister blamed the ongoing war and the resulting suffering of the Syrian people on President Bashar al-Assad.
At the same time, the West called on the Assad government and his supporters to seriously engage in the political process and involve all Syrians, including those living abroad and internally displaced persons, in it. “The proposed presidential elections in Syria this year will not be free or fair, and they should not lead to any measure of normalization of the international community's relations with the Syrian regime,” the statement said.
The Syrian civil war began in March 2011. The main participants in the conflict are government forces on the side of Assad, the so-called moderate opposition and Islamist groups.
