He said Assad is also ready to discuss constitutional reform and, if necessary, hold presidential elections, but only “after the victory over terrorism”.
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The civil war that has seen 250,000 Syrians killed, a million injured and an estimated 11 million others forced from their homes, already involves many regional and worldwide powers. Assad’s term expires in 2021.
It is unclear whether new elections could be held under different circumstances, and Syria’s opposition has dismissed holding a vote now as absurd.
The latest push for a diplomatic solution to the Syrian war comes in the wake of Russia’s intervention, which Moscow says is aimed at helping the government defeat the Islamic State and other terrorists.
Washington has criticized Moscow, which has been bombing Islamist militants in Syria since September 30, for focusing most of its firepower on groups supported by the West and its allies rather than Islamic State. SANA said Assad told the visitors that “the elimination of terrorist groups” would lead to the political solution sought by both Syria and Russian Federation.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with Russian state television broadcast on Saturday that Russia’s air force would be ready to help the FSA if the USA would help it identify where it was.
Rebel groups fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army have been supplied with weapons through Jordan and Turkey. Akbik, the opposition politician, confirmed he had learned of such communications.
The Russian official’s statement came as an answer to a question as to whether envoys of the FSA visited Russia last week.
But a few in the Syrian opposition are wondering whether the Russian offer, for all its ambiguity, might be worth seizing in order to test Moscow’s commitment to finding a negotiated solution to the four-year civil war. Issam al- Rayyes, a spokesman for the FSA’s Southern Front, told the BBC his group “didn’t turn down the offer”, but before anything moved forward, Russia’s strikes against FSA groups further north would have to stop. “That is the position of the kingdom and that is the position of most countries in the world”, he said. She is now at the global Centre for Defence and Security, researching the influence of Russian media. “They do have a relationship with the Assad regime”, Kirby said. But in fact it’s Russian Federation that’s acting from a position of weakness. “So there is no possibility for Syrians to reconcile with the one who killed their kids and destroyed their cities”. It was not clear if the commander was the target, the group said. (Putin didn’t have to go to Saudi Arabia; the Saudi defense minister had visited Moscow earlier this month.) And while Kerry was in the region, the government of Iraq announced it had given Russian Federation the green light to begin airstrikes there too, over USA objections. Diplomatic sources added that the European position was that Iran should be included in the discussions.
The meeting will feature mainly lower-ranking officials, with the United States sending Deputy Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in place of Secretary of State John Kerry.
Assad’s opponents, however, are wary of Russia’s motives, suspecting it of trying to prop up Assad and look after its own national interests in the Middle East as its warplanes support offensives against rebels on the ground.
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The Russian no-fly zone over Syria protecting the regime of President Bashar Assad has also stripped Israelis of one of their most crucial access points to Syrian and Lebanese skies, Business Insider reported on Monday.
