Syrian opposition: No role for Assad in transitional period

The United Nations Security Council approved a resolution Friday that calls for talks between the Syrian government and opposition groups as well as a cease-fire in the nation’s 4-year-old civil war.

Diplomats had rushed to overcome divisions while world powers held the latest talks on how to bring an end to the conflict, which has seen more than 300,000 killed in five years.

The resolution would be a rare gesture of unity in a Security Council that has been bitterly divided on Syria.

Meanwhile, Syria’s Opposition wants apolitical transition without President Bashar al-Assad, said Riad Hijab, who was chosen by Syrian Opposition groups as coordinator of a negotiating body to lead future peace talks.

The resolution came after Moscow and Washington clinched a deal on a text.

Kerry said other countries would help Jordan draw up a final list.

“I think that Assad is going to have to leave in order for the country to stop the blood(shed), for all the parties involved to be able to move forward in a nonsectarian way”, Obama said during his year-end news conference.

“There is an agreement”, Gennady Gatilov told reporters. “That makes today’s discussions hard”, said German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier during a break in the talks.

It was only after Tuesday’s talks with Kerry that Russian Federation – which had previously been cautious about convening another meeting of the ISSG – agreed to take part. “In January, we expect to be at the table and implement a full cease-fire”, he said. The U.S. says the Syrian leader has committed atrocities against his own people.

“This marks a very important step on which we must build”, Ban said of Friday’s resolution.

He said he and Putin reached “common ground” on which Syrian opposition groups would be invited to participate in the Syrian peace talks in NY.

He also called for the end to allied air strikes and lifting on the siege on rebel controlled areas as “confidence building measures”.

Former Assad regime Prime Minister Riyad Hijab, who defected to the opposition in 2012, has been elected to lead the Syrian opposition delegation in talks with the regime on Dec.17.

– Expresses support for establishing within a target of six months a “credible, inclusive and non-sectarian governance”, drafting a new constitution and holding “free and fair elections” supervised by the United Nations within 18 months. Fabius said. “The idea that he could once again stand for elections is unacceptable to us”.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is to report on ceasefire monitoring and reporting mechanisms within 1 month.

Still, it notes that the cease-fire “will not apply to offensive or defensive actions” against the Islamic State group and al-Nusra Front.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh said he presented lists submitted from each country of groups they consider terrorist organisations. Mr. Lavrov hinted at the disagreement there, saying it was “inadmissible to divide terrorists between good and bad ones.”.

Top diplomats from countries including Russian Federation, the United States, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iran and other European and Middle Eastern powers are due to attend Friday’s talks as part of the ISSG.

This diplomatic balancing act aims to keep both Moscow and Riyadh on board as the group struggles to cobble together peace talks.

A peace plan agreed to last month by 20 nations meeting in Vienna sets a January 1 deadline for the start of negotiations between Assad’s government and opposition groups.

The U.N. representative for the Syrian National Coalition, the main Western-backed opposition group, told reporters Friday that a comprehensive solution to the conflict requires “the removal of all foreign troops from Syria, all of them”, including Russian Federation.