Syria’s Assad rules out negotiations with ‘terrorists’

Syria’s political and armed opposition agreed to meet with the Assad regime for talks seeking a political solution to the conflict next month announced the chair of the opposition groups conference in Saudi Arabia.

Concluding a two-day meeting in the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh, representatives of the political and armed opposition agreed that the goal of the talks should be the departure of President Bashar al-Assad and the creation of a democratic and pluralistic state to replace his family’s four-decade-old regime.

But in an interview with the Spanish news agency EFE, Assad said he would not hold political talks with any armed groups, and accused Washington and its ally Saudi Arabia of wanting “terrorist groups” to join negotiations.

Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Aabdollahian of Iran, which is closely allied with al-Assad, was quoted by local Iranian media as criticizing the Riyadh meeting. “So we would very much view them as being part of this consensus agreement”, Kirby said.

The meeting came after two rounds of global talks on the conflict in Syria in Vienna on October 30 and November 14.

The United States warned today that some problems remain to be resolved in a pact between Syrian opposition forces if UN-backed peace talks are to resume next week.

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.

Ahrar al-Sham cited the “main role” that Syria-based opposition figures had been given in a proposed leadership group.

Western- and Arab-backed rebel groups have insisted the Syrian leader must step down immediately but internal opposition groups disagree, as do Assad s key backers Tehran and Moscow.

“Terrorist groups pretending to be moderate opponents (of the regime) and seeking to determine the future of Syria and the region will not be permitted”, Abdollahian said in remarks quoted by state television.

“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”.

More than 100 opposition representatives – ranging from secularist politicians tolerated by al-Assad’s regime, to hardline Islamist rebels – attended the Riyadh conference.

He said that if the goal is a quick end to the war, “and most of the world is saying now they want to see an end to this crisis”, then pressure must be placed “on those countries that, you know them, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar”.