A Russian lawmaker said on Sunday that Assad had expressed a willingness to hold new parliamentary and presidential elections, but only after Syria is “liberated” from Islamic State group jihadists.
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France was not included in four-way talks on Syria between Russian Federation, the United States, Saudi Arabia and Turkey which took place on Friday.
“They will discuss the means to bring about a political transition towards a united and democratic Syria, respectful of all communities, while also reinforcing our fight against terrorism”, he added.
Meeting a Russian parliamentary delegation as Moscow steps up efforts for a political deal, Assad emphasised the need for greater security.
The FSB official, who was not identified, said the terror attack was aimed at destabilizing Russia and stopping the Russian military airstrikes in Syria against the Islamic State group, the news agencies said.
David Pollock, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told Xinhua that there is such a possibility, but both sides are going to try to avoid that and are in touch with each other at relatively low levels among military professionals to prevent that from happening.
“The Syrian Coalition considers these claims a part of the Russian misleading propaganda that aims at diverting attention from failures of the Russian aggression on the Syrian people”, the Turkey-based organization said.
Syria’s last presidential election was in June, 2014.
The U.S. and Saudi Arabia agreed to increase support to Syria’s moderate opposition while seeking a political resolution of the four-year conflict, the US State Department said after Secretary of State John Kerry met King Salman on Saturday.
“I believe that there has been a few progress and positions have moved closer on finding a solution to the Syrian crisis, but I can not say that we have reached an agreement”.
“We thank you for standing by Syria’s territorial integrity and its independence”, Assad told Putin.
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The surprise visit on Tuesday reflects renewed confidence from the embattled Syrian president after Russian Federation and Iran, another staunch ally, dramatically escalated their support recently as Moscow began carrying out airstrikes on Syrian insurgents and Tehran sent hundreds of ground forces. Washington has said it could tolerate Assad during a short transition period, but that he would then have to exit the political stage.
