Syria ‘rejects Russia’s plan to hold early elections’

Vladimir Safronkov, Russia’s deputy United Nations ambassador, said he regretted the document leaked to news organizations but defended the document and encouraged suggestions. The United States, Britain and other countries have said he could remain in power for a short transition period but must then go.

Jatras: That is where the real problem comes in, I am afraid to say.

It says certain Syrian opposition groups should take part in key talks on the crisis in Vienna on Saturday.

One UN Security Council diplomat described the Russian reform proposal to AFP as “back-of-the-envelope stuff”, and said it was “not the answer“. But they carefully avoided the question of when Assad might leave power – a dispute at the heart of the conflict that has claimed more than 250,000 lives.

For starters, Russian Federation appeared ambivalent toward Assad as recently as last week. Intelligence regarding the locations of the terrorists’ positions around the base was partially provided by the Syrian opposition, the Russian Defense Ministry announced on Wednesday.

Yesterday, Western Journalism reported that the Syrian Democratic Coalition had reconquered more than 255 square kilometers in the Al-Hawl region in the northern Hasakah Province.

“It’s a philosophy based on momentum”, said British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, one of the participants.

Assad was overwhelmingly elected to a new seven-year term in June 2014 but his opponents dismissed the vote as a sham. Consequently, thousands of foreign fighters flood into Syria for jihad every year, accompanied by constant appeals from mainly non-Syrian, Sunni clergymen to support the Syrian rebels. “It’s given Russian Federation a pretext to intervene”, Hof said.

“It is not the first group of foreign journalists that we brought to the Hmeymim airbase”.

Separately, United Nations officials working on possibilities for a cease-fire will present proposals to the group.

A more likely focus of discussion in Vienna would be the issue of who was a terrorist, the diplomat said, an element also referred to in the text.

The conflict in Syria has been going on for four years, beginning with anti-government protests before escalating into a full-scale civil war.

A constitutional commission created to “embrace the entire spectrum of the Syrian society, including domestic and outside opposition” would be formed.

Western Journalism was not able to verify these reports independently; but from other mainstream media reports about the situation in Syria, there emerges the picture that the Russian-led coalition has now succeeded in putting Islamic State and other rebel groups on the defensive.

A second Western diplomat said Moscow wanted to use this definition to cover all insurgent groups, not just jihadists such as ISIL and al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front.

On Tuesday, US Air Force General Herbert Carlisle said communications with Russian Federation have vastly improved since the start of Moscow’s bombing campaign, with twice-daily talks and a hotline set up.

The armed Syrian opposition – classified as moderates by the U.S. – did not participate in the talks. Notably, Assad’s presidential office wouldn’t chair it, though nothing suggests he’d be barred from running in a presidential election after a referendum to adopt the new constitution. He added that parliamentary elections are an internal Syrian affair and that it was still too early to hold them.

Allies of the Syrian government that support its fight against rebels to keep Assad in power are Iran, Russia, and Hezbollah.