The Russian government has proposed an eight-point Syrian peace proposal, calling for the drafting of a new constitution and an early presidential election.
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Shehadeh said the proposal is not official yet.
Prominent Syrian opposition figure Haitham al-Maleh said Russian Federation, which began launching airstrikes in support of Assad’s troops on September 30, is an “occupation force” in Syria, adding that the opposition will not accept any role for Assad during the transition.
Latakia, which lies in the heartland of President Assad’s minority Alawite sect, has largely escaped the conflict that has devastated most of Syria and killed more than 250,000 people.
“That issue did not come up in the consultations, but we’re aware of the Russian proposals and, speaking nationally, we have been in contact with them and others about them”.
A European diplomat said an worldwide preparatory commission will start work Thursday on pulling together the opposition lists, and which should be classified as “terrorist” organisations.
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova denied that any document was being presented by Russia for the talks this week in Vienna, claiming “This information does not correspond to reality”.
De Mistura said he hopes the second round of talks in Vienna will “bring a few deliverables for the Syrian people, and one of them should be reduction of violence … and I hope something in that direction can be achieved”.
It calls for the Security Council to agree to list the Islamic State extremist group, also known as ISIL, as “a terrorist organization”, and agreement on an additional list of terrorist groups.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged nations gathering for Syria peace talks to show flexibility and said the chances of a diplomatic solution hinged in part on the military balance. “It’s only in the interest of a small group of people, of a very small minority”, he said. Assad was elected to a new seven-year term in 2014 elections that the opposition dismissed as a sham because of the impact of the civil war.
Approximately 20 countries will attend the Vienna summit Saturday to try to negotiate a ceasefire between Assad’s forces and the rebels.
Syrian forces have recaptured a northern military air base that had been besieged by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) since 2013, Syria state media and a monitoring group have reported.
Robert Ford, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute and a former USA ambassador to Syria, warned that a new constitution and new elections can only be held after serious governance changes are made.
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In his recent interview with Euronews, Jordan’s King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein stated that the world is facing the prospect of a “third world war” and that the global community should use any initiatives presented by Russian Federation as an opportunity to solve the Syrian crisis. “But then again, we need to see how it all proceeds”.
