MOSCOW, February 16 (Itar-Tass) — The change of the Syrian regime is only possible by holding elections and President Bashar al-Assad should be the guarantor of reforms in the country, one of the Syrian leading political scientists, Bassam Abu Abdullah, told Itar-Tass on Thursday.

After the talks with the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, Abdullah, who is leading the National Unity Echelon delegation, said, “The majority of the Syrian population backs Bashar al-Assad because he is the guarantor of embarking on the path of democracy and developing the multi-party system.”

“This task cannot be carried out without the president. There are no other methods and those who seek to change the regime by force are terrorists and extremists,” he said.

“Several thousands of law enforcers could not kill peaceful protesters. They do not burn schools and hospitals and they have no precision-guided weapons, including anti-tank systems,” Abdullah said.

In his words, “destabilisation of the situation in Syria will have unpredictable consequences for the region, with potential eruption of civil wars on the ethnic and religious basis.” “Now several Arab channels are instigating religious extremists to step up in their actions. Russia, which learnt from its experience what Wahhabism means, realises the consequences. Till now all – Christians, Muslims and representatives of other cultures – lived in peace. We don’t want a civil war in Syria,” he said.