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Syrian opposition ready for peace talks if Assad gives up power

Arab World Materials 27 July 2013 00:07 (UTC +04:00)
Syrian opposition groups stand ready for peace talks with Damascus if President Bashar al-Assad would transfer all executive power to a transitional body, their leader said Friday, dpa reported.
Syrian opposition ready for peace talks if Assad gives up power

Syrian opposition groups stand ready for peace talks with Damascus if President Bashar al-Assad would transfer all executive power to a transitional body, their leader said Friday, dpa reported.

Ahmad al-Jabar, president of the Syrian National Coalition, said in New York that the United Nations Security Council should demand all Syrian parties accept a national transitional government with full executive authorty including military and security matters.

"The Security (Council) must explicitly require this of all participants," al-Jabar said.

He said the 15-nation council should impose targeted sanctions against Damascus if it rejects a transition.

Al-Jabar said he would take part in peace talks in Geneva if Damascus "explicitly" would transfer all authority to the transitional body. A conference last year in Geneva called for a political and democratic transition to end the conflict, which arose after a bloody regime crackdown on pro-reform demonstrations in early 2011.

"The situation in Syria is desperate," al-Jabar said. "The Syrian people are calling for peace and democracy. We need more international pressure to force the Assad regime to accept a transition regime."

Diplomats who met with al-Jabar and his delegation said the discussion covered issues from human rights to prospects of a political settlement.

"We received a positive message and a strong commitment to unity and democracy in Syria," British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said following a three-hour meeting. "They rejected extremism and terrorism."

French Ambassador Gerard Araud said the Syrian opposition gave a "clear commitment" to a new Geneva conference while demanding that Damascus relinquish power to the transition government.

Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, whose country backs al-Assad, called the meeting "useful."

"We should not be carried away (by the commitment). The meeting was not to officially recognize the coalition," he cautioned.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called Thursday for every effort to be made to halt the Syrian civil war: "The conflict has killed more than 100,000 people and displaced millions of people, and we have to bring it to an end."

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