President Bashar Al Assad told UN envoy Lakhdar
Brahimi on Wednesday that talks to end Syria’s civil war would only succeed if
foreign powers ended support for rebels fighting to overthrow him.
Brahimi is in Damascus to met Syrian officials in
an effort to shore up support for the faltering peace talks.
State television quoted Assad as telling Brahimi, “the
success of any political solution is tied to stopping support for terrorist
groups and pressuring their patron states”. Assad’s government calls the
armed opposition terrorists.
The “Geneva 2” talks, tentatively planned
for November 23, aim to start a political process to end the civil war in which
more than 100,000 people have been killed.
Brahimi has angered the opposition by saying that
Iran, Assad’s main backer during the war, should attend Geneva. The rebels and
political opposition say that any negotiations should be based on Assad’s
removal.
Assad and Iran, however, have said they will only
go to talks that set no preconditions. Assad said that “only the Syrian
people are authorised to shape the future of Syria.”
Mohammad Riza Shebani, the Iranian ambassador to
Syria, told reporters in Damascus on Wednesday that Iran was ready to attend
the Geneva meeting.
“Of course, everyone knows Iran’s efforts to
help a political solution to the Syrian crisis. Iran’s absence from this
meeting does not benefit the meeting,” he said.
The Syrian conflict began in early 2011 as a
peaceful protest movement against four decades of Assad family rule, but has
degenerated into a sectarian civil war and forced millions to flee.
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