Riyad Naasan Agha, Syria's former minister of culture who defected to the opposition, said: "If only the regime regains control, and the Russians and Iranians leave [Syria]." Speaking on Al-Arabiya TV on April 5, he said that "all the countries of the world have a piece of the Syrian pie, and the regime does not own even its own piece," and that the goal is no longer freedom, but independence.
