Meanwhile, Ahmad Soner, a member of the main Syrian opposition National Coalition, said the participants in the Riyadh talks agreed on Wednesday on eight points, which he described as basic for the future of Syria.
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The United Nations in a statement said the factions are “ready to negotiate with representatives of the Syrian regime”, though with the stipulation that Assad would be excluded from a shift to any potential new government, the AFP said.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said the Us and Saudi Arabia desired “terrorist groups” to join peace talks proposed by world powers, and that nobody in Syria would accept such discussions, in an interview transcript released by state media.
Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad has dismissed possible negotiation with the Syrian opposition until rebel groups lay down their arms.
More than 100 opposition representatives ranging from secularist politicians tolerated by Assad’s regime to hardline Islamist rebels are attending the Riyadh conference.
The talks are aimed at forming a unified front ahead of proposed peace talks with Assad’s government. A spokesman for the group inside Syria confirmed the statement.
US Secretary of State John Kerry speaks to reporters at the COP 21 United Nations conference on climate change, on December 11, 2015 in Le Bourget, on the outskirts of Paris.
Ahrar al-Sham, a Saudi-backed ultraconservative group that operates mainly in northern Syria, said in a statement that it was withdrawing also because the conference failed to “confirm the Muslim identity of our people”.
He says the “Saudis did a good job of destroying the October Vienna global agreement”, and “returned the political solution to square one”.
Assad said he still had support in the country and would not step down.
“I never thought about leaving Syria under any circumstances, in any situation, something I never put in my mind, like the Americans say “plan B” or “plan C”.
“For us, in Syria, everyone who holds a machinegun is a terrorist”.
There was also an agreement on creation of the team of negotiators to hold talks with Assad regime with a condition that membership of anyone in the team would cease to end upon joining the transitional government. The Syrian government refers to all insurgent groups as terrorists.
Others are more wary, noting uncertainty over the attitude of some Islamist and Kurdish groups, not to mention the intentions of the United States and Russian Federation.
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He said that if the goal is a quick end to the war, “and most of the world is saying now they want to see an end to this crisis”, then pressure must be placed “on those countries that, you know them, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar”.
