Syria talks result in ‘concrete calendar’ leading to polls’

A day after gunmen and suicide bombers went on a rampage through Paris, killing at least 127 people, foreign ministers and senior officials from more than a dozen countries agreed to work for a ceasefire in Syria’s civil war, but US Secretary of State John Kerry said it would not apply to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). “Make no mistake that resolve has only grown stronger in the wake of this unmistakable brutality”.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who attended the Saturday talks in the Austrian capital as a member of the Iranian delegation, said on Sunday that a few foreign ministers insisted during the negotiations that the Syrian head of state be ousted from his position.

Our correspondent at the talks said they have inevitably been overshadowed by the events in Paris, but that participants emphasised that what happened in France only made it more pressing that they fight terrorism together and decisively.

“We will support the political process that will result in him (Assad) leaving or we will continue to support” Syria’s foreign-backed opposition in order to topple the Syrian leader “by force”, said the top Saudi diplomat.

But the United States and regional powers such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia are supporting a few moderate rebel groups in the country to overthrow the ruling regime.

The parties to the worldwide peace talks in Syria remain at loggerheads over the role that Assad would play in Syria’s political process. “They are not allowed to say what should be changed in Syria in the structure and techniques”, he said. However, that cease-fire would not include the Islamic State or al-Qaida-linked Jabhat al-Nusra groups.

The countries gathered in Vienna agreed that the elections will be held according to a new constitution and will be administered by the United Nations.

They are – the United Nations envoy, special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, was here, and he is going to be spearheading the process of trying to get the opposition groups and Assad to the table, to try to start talking.

The Syrian government has always believed in the political solution to end the Syrian crisis, but it should respect the national sovereignty of Syria, particularly the option to decide the nature of Syria’s political system and the country’s leadership, the minister added.

But Russian Federation, carrying out air strikes against Syrian rebels since late September, is sticking by Assad along with Shiite Iran, which does not want a Sunni-controlled Syria.

Residents of Douma, a rebel-held town east of Damascus frequently bombarded by Syria’s regime, wrote an open letter to the French people.

“What France suffered from savage terror is what the Syrian people have been enduring”, he said.

A Jordan-led discussion on who should be put on the unified list of terrorist organizations will take place within coming weeks, according to Bogdanov.

French President Francois Hollande, in a Saturday television address, called the Paris attacks an “act of war” committed “by a terrorist army”. Europe and Syria’s neighbors, meanwhile, are struggling to cope with the worst migrant crisis since World War II.