The Syrian foreign minister says it is only for Syrians to decide on the country’s future elections, adding that that issue of presidency is a “red line” for Damascus ahead of the next round of UN-brokered peace talks on Syria.
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Syrian Foreign Affairs Minister Walid al-Moualem said the presidency will not be up for discussion during the peace talks, which Alloush described as “worthless” .
Still, al-Moallem told the Associated Press a government delegation will travel to Switzerland on Sunday, but he said the representatives will not stay more than 24 hours if opposition rebels do not attend.
The talks will coincide with the fifth anniversary of Syria’s war, which has killed more than 250,000 people and sparked a refugee crisis.
The pro-government Facebook said the pilot of the MiG-21 “managed to eject safely” and was rescued by Syrian government forces.
“All Syrians have rejected the division [of Syria] and federalism can be discussed at the negotiations”, de Mistura told Al Jazeera.
“If this is what they [the opposition] think, I advise them not to come to the negotiations so that they don’t make us exhausted and we don’t make them exhausted”, Mr Muallem said.
Staffan de Mistura also said that the way to include Syrian Kurds into inter-Syrian negotiations in Geneva will start on March 14 will be found.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking in Saudi Arabia, said violence in the war-torn country has decreased dramatically.
“If they (the HNC) continue with this approach, there’s no reason for them to come to Geneva”.
Both the government and the HNC have agreed to participate in a fresh round of indirect talks in Geneva starting on Monday.
Muallem said the negotiations would aim to form a “unity government” which would then appoint a committee to either write a new constitution or amend the current one.
“The future of Syria is decided by the Syrian people”, the minister said, in response to Mistura’s remarks about an election in Syria within 18 months.
But Kerry, who met Saudi Arabia’s King Salman for talks on Syria, said that “perceived” violations of the ceasefire should not derail the UN-mediated peace talks.
The HNC has called for the creation of a transitional body with full executive powers, and Alloush said Muallem’s comments “show that the regime is not serious about the political process”.
He said the jet fighter crashed in government-held territory but that the fate of its crew remained unknown.
Kerry also said that a US meeting with the foreign ministers of the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) would take place at some point in next few weeks in the region, but gave no details about the date or the venue.
Meanwhile, he highlighted that the violence in Syria has calmed down by 80-90 percent.
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A Syrian man reacts as rescue workers try to pull a victim out from under the rubble of a building following a reported air strike on the rebel-held neighborhood of Salhin in the northern city of Aleppo on March 11, 2016.
