Syrian President Bashar Assad said in remarks published Friday that his government will not negotiate with armed groups, calling them “terrorists” and saying they will only talk to political opposition.
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Assad said his military position had improved in the nearly five-year war in the fight against insurgent groups, but acknowledged that it was taking its toll.
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“So far, we’ve been seeing that some countries, including Saudi Arabia, the United States, and some Western countries wanted the terrorist groups to join these negotiations”, he said in an interview on Thursday with Spanish news agency EFE.
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In a parallel statement, Syria’s World Peace envoy Fares al-Salamou al-Taei said that the so-called dissidents who sat beside the terrorists in the Riyadh conference did not represent the Syrian people.
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A possible December 18 meeting to advance the Syrian peace talks in NY is “not locked in yet”, Kerry added.
They established a “supreme council” made up of 32 opposition members and representatives of rebel factions that would later pick the 15 people who would negotiate on behalf of the opposition.
Western- and Arab-backed rebel groups have insisted the Syrian leader must step down immediately but internal opposition groups disagree, as do Assad s key backers Tehran and Moscow.
“Whenever they want to change their approach, give up the armaments, we are ready, while to deal with them as a political entity, this is something we completely refuse”.
The participants also issued a statement at the end of the meeting over the future negotiations, but called for President Assad and his aides to “quit power with the start of the transition period”, which was set at the Vienna talks in November. However, Kirby said the group did participate in the negotiations.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said while the Russian Air Force was providing air cover to some FSA units, which he said were fighting alongside the Syrian army, Russia was not supplying the rebels with arms and ammunition.
Syria’s complex conflict erupted in March 2011 with anti-government protests but billowed into an all-out war after a crackdown by the authorities.
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Although there was agreement on a framework for negotiation, the withdrawal of Ahrar al-Sham, whose founders are linked to al-Qaida, underscored the difficulties that lie ahead as groups with competing ideologies try to forge a common vision for the future. Those must be addressed if a planned high-level diplomatic conference is to be held as scheduled at the United Nations later this month.
