Syria’s UN representative: ‘Let’s open a new page’

“Why not leave the dark pages of history behind? I hope we can turn over a new page in our relations.”

These are the words coming out of the mouth of Syria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Bashar al-Jaafari. I visited him in his office, in Syria’s mission in New York, yesterday. We talked about the recent developments in the region, with a specific focus on Turkey-Syria relations. It looks like that the regional context has made President Bashar al-Assad revisit his policy toward Turkey.

Our conversation started with al-Jaafari restating Syria’s usual argument that Turkey has been supporting the jihadists in Syria and played an important role in the rise of their power. Yet this time he put this argument into a much wider context. Accordingly, the West is trying to split the countries in the Middle East to pursue its interests. And regional countries such as Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are serving to this end by supporting the terrorists.

But then why has Turkey been complaining that European countries are not providing it with intelligence on the jihadists travelling from Europe to Turkey? Or why has Turkey put al-Nusra on its list of terrorist organizations? He says this is due to the pressure applied by the West.

Al-Jaafari thinks Turkey and Syria share the same destiny: “We are both abused by the West. We are both victims. And we can fight against this only by cooperating.” He underlines that both countries are losing a golden opportunity: The economic potential and the role they could play in the region.

He also emphasizes Turkey and Syria’s common religious identity. “The West pictures Muslims as terrorists and the bad guys. This is not only sad for...