Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could play a role in a future political transition, the UN-Arab League envoy on Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, said in an interview, dpa reported.
Brahimi told France's Jeune Afrique magazine that many in al-Assad's entourage considered his candidacy in presidential elections set for mid-2014 to a "foregone conclusion" and that the Syrian leader himself saw it as his "absolute right."
"What I'm saying to Syrians, loud and clear, is that history teaches us that you cannot go backwards after a crisis like this one. President Assad can, therefore, contribute to a transition between the Syria of the past, that of his father and him, and what I call the new Syrian republic," Brahimi said.