Syria's Muslim Brotherhood Says Rejected Iran Power Deal

The Muslim Brotherhood has rejected an Iranian proposal to play a leading role in Syria's government in exchange for President Bashar al-Assad staying in power, one of its leaders told Al-Hayat newspaper.

Iranian intermediaries proposed that the Brotherhood "lead a government (in Syria) on condition we give up our demand to replace Bashar al-Assad," the group's deputy secretary, Mohammed Farouq Tayfour, told the London-based daily.

"It is the responsibility of the international community to protect civilians and establish security corridors," as French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe stated, said Tayfour.

"We must ask the Arab League to publish a report and transfer it to the (U.N.) Security Council," added the Islamist leader, who was speaking from his office in Istanbul.

Tayfour, who is also a member of the Syrian National Council, an opposition umbrella group, dismissed reports the uprising against Assad's regime is turning more radical.

He accused the regime of "pushing (the revolt) towards militarization and sectarianism."

"The regime has primary responsibility for what is going on in Syria. The Syrian revolution is peaceful; demonstrators insist on the non-sectarian aspect" of their action, he added.

"The people ... will continue to demonstrate no matter the intensity of the repression, and act at the regional and international level to obtain an intervention aiming to protect civilians one way or the other."