Russia urges Assad to hold peace talks; opposition leader refuses to negotiate in Moscow
By Sara Rajabova
Syrian President Bashar Assad's main international protector Russia on Friday urged him to initiate talks with the opposition, and invited the leader of the main opposition coalition to visit Moscow, DPA reported.
"We actively encouraged, as we have been doing in the past few months, the Syrian leadership to make as concrete as possible its declared readiness for dialogue with the opposition," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said after talks with his Egyptian counterpart Mohamed Kamel Amr in Moscow.
The Russian official said he made the request at a meeting with Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al-Mokdad in Moscow on Thursday.
Lavrov warned that time was running out to find a peaceful solution to Syria's 22-month conflict and halt a descent into what he called "bloody chaos."
"I think a realistic and detailed assessment of the situation inside Syria will prompt reasonable opposition members to seek ways to start a political dialogue," he said.
Lavrov's call came on the eve of talks in Moscow with the UN-Arab League peace envoy for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, who has just completed a five-day visit to Damascus.
Besides, Lavrov said Russia has contacted the Syrian National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces through the Russian Embassy in Egypt and expressed readiness to conduct a meeting with Syrian coalition leader Mouaz al-Khatib.
However, the opposition leader rejected the invitation from Russia for peace talks, Reuters reported.
In an interview on Al Jazeera television, al-Khatib said he had already ruled out such a trip and sought an apology from Moscow for its support for President Assad.
"We have clearly said we will not go to Moscow. We could meet in an Arab country if there was a clear agenda," al-Khatib said.
"Now we also want an apology from [Russian Foreign Minister Sergei] Lavrov because all this time he said that the people will decide their destiny, without foreign intervention," he said, accusing Russia of intervening in the solution of the Syrian crisis.
"If we don't represent the Syrian people, why do they invite us?" al-Khatib queried. "And if we do represent the Syrian people why doesn't Russia respond and issue a clear condemnation of the barbarity of the regime and make a clear call for Assad to step down? This is the basic condition for any negotiations."
Turkey's Hurriyet daily reported Wednesday that UN-Arab League envoy Brahimi, who met with President Assad on Monday in Damascus, brought the double-option US-Russian initiative to Assad.
The first option is establishment of a transitional government under the leadership of Assad and would include the opposition and those who were not involved in the crackdown in Syria. This government should aim for a democratic election that would not involve Assad's candidacy.
The second option is that Assad would leave the country and a transitional government comprising a mixed opposition-government team is to be established to lead the country to the next election, the daily reported.
However, Brahimi's double-option initiative on Syria cannot be considered promising.
Thus, the Syrian opposition dismisses the option to be represented in a transitional government with President Assad and said they can drive Assad out with a military victory, despite long being outgunned by his forces. The opposition has maintained it will reject any solution that will keep Assad in power, "even temporarily."
"We will only accept a political solution, which does not include any of Assad's family or those who carried out massacres against the Syrian people," said the bloc's spokesman, Walid al-Bunni, according to DPA.
On the other hand, Russia supports Assad's participation in a transitional government.
Russia, a traditional ally and arms supplier of Syria, has repeatedly vetoed United Nations resolutions against Assad.
In the meantime, Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said regime change in Syria is inevitable as recent developments on the ground and in the international arena indicate an irreversible pattern with regards to the ongoing Syrian uprising, Todays Zaman newspaper reported on Friday.
He said over 100 countries have recognized the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, the new opposition coalition, which is expected to establish a transitional government in post-Assad Syria.
Erdogan said that the main task for the new coalition is to set conditions for a new government in a bid to avert a political chaos in the transitional period when President Assad is gone.
Syria has been the scene of deadly unrest since March 2011, which has claimed the lives of thousands of Syrians, including a large number of soldiers and security forces.
According to the UN website, at least 20,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed since the uprising against President Assad began. However, the opposition says the conflict has claimed more than 45,000 lives. The conflict has spawned more than 500,000 refugees, while an estimated four million people inside the country need urgent humanitarian assistance.