Egypt has welcomed the results of the recent meeting of Syrian opposition leaders in Riyadh, describing them as a vital step in giving the opposition one unified voice in its prospective negotiations with the Syrian government.
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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. The upcoming meeting at the U.N.is tentatively set for December 18, and Kerry says it will be dependent on the answers to his questions.
The disparate groups agreed on a common framework following two days of talks in Riyadh.
Assad said organizations considered to be “terrorist around the world, like ISIS (Islamic State) or al-Nusra”, have hundreds of millions of dollars and “a almost full army like any other state”, a situation he said was only possible due to the direct support of countries like Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. “Actually, no”, Assad said, as quoted by the EFE news agency.
Asked whether he’d be willing to join discussions called for by world powers by January 1, he said: “They desire the Syrian government to negotiate with terrorists, something I don’t believe anyone would accept in any state”.
“We are still convinced that terrorists of all stripes should be excluded from the political process in Syria”, the foreign ministry said, adding it was up to United Nations peace envoy Staffan de Mistura to bring together various representatives of the opposition.
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Syrian President Bashar al-Assad speaks during a TV interview in Damascus, Syria in this still image taken from a video on November 29, 2015.
