Muallem: Only Syrians Can Choose their Future
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem told U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi Tuesday that only the Syrian people can choose their future and leaders, official news agency SANA reported.
He made the comments as Brahimi visited Damascus to muster support for launching peace talks in Geneva aimed at finding a political solution to the conflict.
"Syria will attend Geneva II based on the exclusive right of the Syrian people to choose their political future, to choose their leaders and to reject all forms of external intervention," Muallem said.
"The dialogue will take place between Syrians," he added, rejecting regional and international interference in any dialogue.
He also said that all statements about the future of the country, particularly "the one from London," were "infringements on the rights of the Syrian people," and "preconditions to the dialogue before it has even started."
That was a reference to the October 22 meeting of the so-called Friends of Syria group of countries, key backers of the Syrian opposition.
At the meeting, Western and Arab powers agreed with Syrian opposition heads that President Bashar Assad had no future role to play in the country.
Brahimi insisted that the Geneva talks would be "between the Syrian parties" and that only Syrians would decide their future, SANA reported.
He added that there was an agreement on "the importance of ending the violence, terrorism and respecting Syrian sovereignty," according to SANA.
As Brahimi presses his tour to drum up backing for a peace conference, dubbed Geneva II, its prospects remain in doubt, with Syria's increasingly fractured rebels having yet to say whether they will attend.
The main opposition National Coalition has said it will refuse to attend talks unless Assad's resignation is on the table -- a demand rejected by Damascus.
Assad himself has cast doubt on the possibility of talks, and has said he will not negotiate with any group tied to the rebels fighting his forces or to foreign states.
Source: Agence France Presse
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