Syrian Minister Says 'Unacceptable' that Assad Resign
Suggestions that Syrian President Bashar Assad step down are "completely unacceptable," Syria's minister tasked with talking to the opposition said in Tehran on Monday.
"Foreign interference" was behind that idea, which would be "a violation of Syria's sovereignty," National Reconciliation Minister Ali Haidar charged in a news conference, the ISNA news agency reported.
Instead, Syria's rebels should be encouraged to lay down their arms, said Haidar, who is in Tehran attending Non-Aligned Movement meetings.
He claimed that "the United States and Israel are the real architects of the proposals (that Assad step down) put forward by Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey."
The Syrian minister added that Iran -- which is steadfast in its support of Assad -- "is not directly interfering in Syrian issues but it is standing by the Syrian people and is against foreign interference in Syria."
The comments underlined the defiance of Damascus as it battles a 17-month insurgency that has cost more than 17,000 lives according to the United Nations, or 25,000 according to the British-based Syrian Observatory of Human Rights.
Syria's opposition groups have made Assad's departure a condition before any peace negotiations take place, a position echoed by the United States, France and Britain.
But Assad, who enjoys diplomatic cover from Russia and China, has refused to go. On Sunday, he vowed he would not change course in the conflict against what he termed a "conspiracy" by Western and regional powers.
Haidar said that, "on principle, the proposal (for Assad to step down) is completely unacceptable since it has been put forward by foreign countries and any foreign interference in Syrian issues is a violation of Syria's sovereignty as well as of the UN charter."
He added: "The only solution is to end foreign interference and for the opposition to put down its arms."
"Misunderstandings" between the Syrian people and government "have transformed into a violent crisis," he admitted, but he asserted that Damascus was ready to meet opposition demands through talks.
Iran supported that stance, Haidar said. "Iran has always supported a political solution to the crisis.... Iran has treated all sides (in the conflict) equally," he said.
Iran, which is excluded from most international efforts aimed at ending the conflict in Syria, plans to submit its own peace proposal to the NAM summit in Tehran, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said on Saturday.
Syrian opposition groups and the United States and its European allies, though, view Iran's involvement with skepticism, believing Tehran to be complicit in the Syrian regime's bloody crackdown.
Source: Agence France Presse
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