Assad must go, dead or alive: Syrian opposition

Assad must go, dead or alive: Syrian opposition

March 14, 2016
Mohammad Alloush
Mohammad Alloush

GENEVA — Fresh calls for Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad to leave power were voiced by the opposition on Saturday, as peace talks loom to find a solution to the five years of civil war.

Chief opposition negotiator Mohammad Alloush said Assad must go, dead or alive, if the peace to talks to be held in Geneva on Monday are to succeed. “We believe that the transitional period should start with the fall, or death, of Bashar Al-Assad,” chief opposition negotiator Mohammad Alloush said an interview in Geneva.

“It cannot start with the presence of the regime, or the head of this regime still in power.”

The UN-brokered talks are the latest international push to end a conflict that has killed more than 270,000 people and forced half the country from their homes.

The United Nations is pushing for a transitional government and a new constitution to be put in place in six months. Legislative and presidential elections would be held next year.

The High Negotiations Committee opposition group has insisted the transitional government be given full executive powers, but the regime dismissed the idea outright ahead of the talks.

“We will not talk with anyone who wants to discuss the presidency... Bashar Al-Assad is a red line,” Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem told a Damascus news conference Saturday.

“If they (the HNC) continue with this approach, there’s no reason for them to come to Geneva.”

Fighting has eased since a landmark ceasefire between Syria’s regime and rebels, bar some Islamist groups, took effect two weeks ago.

But Alloush accused the regime and its ally Russia of not abiding by the truce, which it said had been violated hundreds of times since it began on Feb. 27.

“There have been more than 350 violations during the 14 days and that shows the regime violated the truce, or didn’t commit to it,” he said.


March 14, 2016
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