Assad’s future red line for talks: Syrian FM

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem says the future role of President Bashar al-Assad is a “red line” for the government delegation in the peace talks in Switzerland.

The issues of the president and the government are “red lines for us and for the Syrian people,” the official SANA news agency quoted Muallem as saying shortly before the arrival of his delegation in the Swiss city of Montreux on Tuesday for the talks aimed at finding a political solution to the Syrian crisis.

“Nobody can touch the presidency,” Muallem added.

The Syrian foreign minister stated that the government delegation would make every effort to ensure that the Geneva II peace conference bears fruit.

“We are committed to working for the success of this conference so that it is the first step on the road to a dialogue between Syrians on Syrian soil,” he said.

Muallem criticized the organizers for their failure to invite a separate delegation from the opposition based in Damascus, the National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change (NCC).

The NCC opposes the militancy in the country but the foreign-based opposition, the so-called Syrian National Coalition (SNC), supports the militants fighting against the government.

“The UN gave in to Western pressure by refusing to invite the national opposition,” he noted.

The SNC delegation, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, US Secretary of State John Kerry, EU Foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, and British Foreign Secretary William Hague have also arrived in the Swiss town.

Officials have expressed little hope for a breakthrough at the conference. However, they consider bringing the Syrian government and the opposition to the negotiation table as a sign of progress.

The conference is scheduled to be held in Switzerland in two parts. On Wednesday, the opening session of the event will be in Montreux and then it will be moved to the UN office in Geneva on Friday.

Syria has been gripped by deadly unrest since March 2011. According to reports, the Western powers and their regional allies — especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey — are supporting the militants operating inside Syria.

According to the United Nations, more than 100,000 people have been killed and millions displaced due to the violence.