THE Syrian government has dismissed a peace proposal from the umbrella group representing Syria’s US and UK backed political and armed opposition.
The opposition’s High Negotiations Committee (HNC) proposed holding six months of negotiations with President Bashar al-Assad, accompanied by a full ceasefire. Assad would then hand over power to a unity government that would run Syria for 18 months and organise elections.
Syria’s deputy foreign minister later insisted Assad would not step aside. Faisal Mekdad said that demands that the country’s elected leader be removed were ‘crazy’ and ‘unbelievable’. ‘We are saying, let the Syrian people decide their own fate. Their own future without intervention. Don’t make preconditions who will rule Syria,’ he said.
The HNC’s ‘Vision for Syria’ was unveiled in London by its general co-ordinator, Riyad Hijab, who defected in 2012 while serving as prime minister.
• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has told reporters upon returning from the G20 summit in China’s Hangzhou that he plans to hold talks with Russian and US leaders on a ceasefire in Syria’s Aleppo.
‘In China, we told Russian President Vladimir Putin that there is a need to immediately achieve a ceasefire in Aleppo. But this depends to a certain degree on talks between the Turkish, Russian and US chief diplomats. The top envoys will hold a trilateral meeting,’ Erdogan told the Haberturk TV channel.
Erdogan added that he would have a phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Barack Obama on this issue. ‘We said that we want peace in Aleppo before the holidays begin (Eid al-Adha on September 11). Our partners are positive about this prospect. Putin affirmed that the result may be achieved within two or three days,’ Erdogan said.
Erdogan said that ‘at the moment there are no great problems with refugees in northern Syria but there are serious difficulties only in Aleppo now.’ At the G20 summit in China, the Turkish leader discussed the ceasefire regime in Aleppo when meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Barack Obama. The issue is also actively being discussed by all three top diplomats, he said.
• Spokesman for the Turkish president Ibrahim Kalin said at a press conference on Wednesday that Turkey won’t conclude any agreements with the ‘terrorist groupings of Syrian Kurds’. ‘There is no talk about ceasefire agreements with the Democratic Union party or with the People’s Self-Defence Forces. These are terrorist organisations,’ the spokesman said.