Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said that the Qatari state has no plans to normalize relations with the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria.
This statement came after the announcement of Bashar al-Assad’s controversial victory in the Syrian presidential elections on May 27. This election process and its results have been denounced by the opposition in the country and the West as a farce.
In an interview aired by UK-based Al Araby television on Friday, the Qatari Foreign Minister stated that “so far we see nothing on the horizon for a political solution acceptable to the Syrian people … the (regime’s) approach and conduct have not changed” and “there is no motivation for us to re-establish ties with the Syrian regime at this time”.
Qatar closed its diplomatic mission in Damascus in 2012 due to the Assad regime’s bloody attack on protesters, which was the main factor that triggered the beginning of a civil war in 2011 that ravaged the country ever since.
Bashar al-Assad was re-elected with 95.1 percent of the vote, according to the country’s parliamentary speaker, who revealed the results in a televised press conference on Thursday.
The Assad government stated on Wednesday that the election shows the country is functioning normally in spite of the war which has killed hundreds and thousands of people and displaced more than 11 million.
Many Syrian refugees in neighboring countries have refrained from voting in the polls due to the context and illegitimacy of the election. Voting procedures were also non-existent in the northern and northeastern parts of the country.
