Syrian Opposition Members Think 18-Month Transition Plan Is ‘Unrealistic’

Diplomats and leaders from 19 countries and groups may have come up with a timeline to end Syria’s civil war and elect a new government.

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister said on Monday Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should be a part of upcoming presidential elections, according to the Fars news agency.

With just two weeks elapsed since the Syria talks first convened, it could mark a significant advance, if successful.

Earlier this month, the French presidency said in a statement that “Paris supports a political transition in Syria, but (President) Bashar al-Assad can not be a part of it in the future”.

No agreement was reached about the future of President Assad or even which groups would be invited to the table. Diplomats have spoken of an 18-month transitional period, suggesting it would start when the formal political talks begin.

The West hopes that last month’s downing of a Russian airliner over the Sinai – which Britain believes was caused by an IS bomb – will help persuade Mr Putin to shift his stance on Syria and turn his firepower against the terror group which holds large swathes of the country.

“The French explicitly said that they will be fighting the IS at home and overseas, and that is a sign that could be translated in more military pressure against IS soon”, Danura told Xinhua. “Terrorism is an indivisible whole”, Labib Nahas tweeted.

Officials said there were indications that the Russian president was ready to talk about the details of the transition process in Syria and there was “some reason for optimism”, though there was still “a long way to go”.

Al-Abbas asserted that the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources is the only body authorized to invest in this national resource through its constitutions and companies, emphasizing that the only way to deal with these armed terrorist organizations is through “the guns of the heroes of the Syrian Arab army”. We urge the world community to cooperate with the forces of the revolution, if they really want to eliminate this terror.

The two countries have been close allies since Syria, then ruled by Assad’s father Hafez, sided with Tehran against the later executed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.

The delegates pledged to take all possible steps to ensure that they and those they support adhere to a ceasefire in Syria where an estmitated 250,000 people have died.

The requirement carries obvious difficulties in terms of definition and transparency. But again, for that to happen they’re going to have to figure out what the fate of President Assad is going to be, what role he’s going to play. The Paris attacks “show that it doesn’t matter if you’re for Assad or against him”, said the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov. “ISIS is your enemy”.

“If neither the dictator Bashar al-Assad nor the terrorists are the answer – and they are not – our challenge is to create the conditions under which a clear and broadly accepted, viable alternative can emerge”, US Secretary of State John Kerry said at a joint press conference with Lavrov and de Mistura.

Syria’s Foreign Ministry also condemned the attacks, saying the Syrian people know more than anyone else the ugliness of terrorism and what happened in Paris, noting that terrorism constitutes a grave danger on the security and peace in the entire world.

“We said, don’t take what is happening in Syria lightly”.

The statement added that the participants expect to meet in a month in order to review progress towards implementation of a ceasefire and the beginning of the political process.