Syria’s Assad says won’t talk to “terrorists” as U.S. wants

The Riyadh meeting was meant to bring as ” broad a cross-section of Syrian opposition groups as possible” to the table, according to Adel Al-Jubeir, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister.

“We appreciate that this extremely diverse group of Syrians put aside differences in the interest of building a new Syria”.

“Opposition, for everyone in this world, doesn’t mean militant”.

Syrian opposition factions agreed Thursday on a framework that would guide proposed U.N.-backed peace talks with the government.

A peace plan agreed to last month by world powers meeting in Vienna set a January 1 deadline for the start of talks between Assad’s government and opposition groups.

“They want the Syrian government to negotiate with terrorists, something I don’t think anyone would accept in any country”, Assad said adding he had “never thought about leaving Syria under any circumstance”.

With worldwide pressure growing for a political solution to Syria’s war, opposition groups appear to have resigned themselves to the idea that Bashar al-Assad can not be removed by force. “These terrorist groups will not be allowed to decide Syria’s future”.

Among the rebel members are the powerful Islamist group Ahrar al-Sham, which has close ties to the al-Qaeda’s Syrian branch, and Free Syrian Army groups.

Saudi Arabia is a main backer of the rebels along with Turkey and Western countries.

“Our national and religious duties oblige our withdrawal from the conference because the revolutionary groups were not given their real representation”, the group said in a statement.

Kerry has said he hopes to travel to Moscow next week to discuss the Syrian crisis with President Vladimir Putin, but the visit has not been officially confirmed.

The talks are unprecedented: it is the first time over 100 representatives from opposition groups have come together under one roof to work towards peace from a war that has seen over 250,000 people killed and left millions displaced.

The opposition has long complained of having insufficient arms as it confronts pro-regime forces who enjoy strong military backing from Iran and Russian Federation, which is conducting strikes by warplanes and even submarines in support of Assad.

But Abdulaziz Sager, the Saudi academic who moderated the meetings, said afterward that the representative of the group had not known about the statement and had signed the final agreement anyway – suggesting a split between the group’s political officials and its hard-line base.