Syria’s Assad says he won’t negotiate with armed groups

Gathered in Riyadh for the first major talks among various political and armed factions, representatives agreed a framework for negotiations sought by world powers.

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.

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.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, said the Syrian opposition factions had made progress in their talks.

“I welcome the Riyadh Conference’s commitment to a unified and pluralistic Syria and its rejection of terrorism in all its forms”.

“We are ready today to start the negotiations with the opposition”.

Monzer Akbik, a member of the National Coalition opposition bloc, said the meeting agreed to set up a 25-strong leadership group, including six coalition members, six from rebel factions, five from the NCB and eight independent figures.

He says the “Saudis did a good job of destroying the October Vienna worldwide agreement”, and “returned the political solution to square one”. The US has also called on Mr. Assad to step down, but has appeared to soften its stance on when that has to happen.

Samih Shubayb in the Palestinian paper Al-Ayyam believes the “mosaic of groups” are uniting for the “post-Islamic-State era in Syria”. It will select a negotiating team of 15 people to face the Assad government at talks that could begin in January.

But he added that “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”.

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said groups linked to IS were attending.

The talks are to come alongside a cease-fire that the United Nations hopes will cover much of the country, except territories controlled by terrorist groups.

 The Syrian Civil War has cost the lives of more than 250,000 people and led to the displacement of about half of the population since 2011.