Assad insists he will not quit, car bomb hits Damascus

Source : thenews.com.pk

DAMASCUS: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad insisted he will not resign before the end of his mandate in 2014 as a car bomb exploded in the capital Damascus on Saturday killing at least three people.

"To resign would be to flee," Assad said in an interview with the Argentine newspaper Clarin when asked if he would consider stepping aside as called for by US Secretary of State John Kerry.

"I don't know if Kerry or anyone else has received the power of the Syrian people to talk in their name about who should go and who should stay. That will be determined by the Syrian people in the 2014 presidential elections."

He nevertheless said he welcome a US-Russian peace initiative to end Syria's two- year civil war.

The United States and Russia are trying to convene a peace conference in Geneva that would bring together members of the regime and the rebels fighting to oust Assad.

"We have received the Russian-US approach well and we hope that there will be an international conference to help Syrians overcome the crisis," Clarin quoted Assad as saying.

He added, however, that "we do not believe that many Western countries really want a solution in Syria. And we don't think that the forces that support the terrorists want a solution to the crisis."

Syria calls the rebels who have been fighting to overthrow the regime "terrorists" Saturday evening state television accused "terrorists" of detonating a car bomb in a north Damascus neighbourhood, saying it killed at least three people and wounded five others.

The state broadcaster said the bomb was placed in a car in the Rokn Eddin eighbourhood and that a disposal team was sent in to defuse another device.

"The terrorist explosion was the result of a big bomb concealed in a car ... Three people were killed and five others wounded according to a provisional toll," it said.

In the interview with Clarin and the Argentine news agency Telam, Assad spoke at length and also denied that his government has used chemical weapons against civilians.

The use of chemical weapons "would mean the death of thousands or tens of thousands of people in a matter of minutes. Who could hide something like that?" he asked Telam. He nevertheless acknowledged that "thousands of Syrians have died" in the conflict that broke out in March 2011 as a peaceful uprising against the regime before turning into a full-fledged war.

The Observatory says that more than 94,000 people have now been killed in Syria.

Russia rejects Assad exit as precondition for Syria deal

Source : www.hurriyetdailynews.com

Russia voiced support on Saturday for international peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi but insisted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's exit cannot be a precondition for a deal to end the country's conflict.

A Foreign Ministry statement following talks on Friday with the United States and Brahimi, whom the Syrian government has labelled "flagrantly biased", reiterated calls for an end to violence in Syria, where more than 60,000 people have been killed since March 2011.

At the meeting in Geneva with Brahimi and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov "expressed unfailing support for Brahimi's mission as the U.N.-Arab League special envoy on Syria," it said.

The issue of Assad, whom the United States, European powers and Gulf-led Arab states insist must step down to end what has escalated into a civil war, appeared to be a sticking point at the meeting. Russia's Foreign Ministry said: "As before, we firmly uphold the thesis that questions about Syria's future must be decided by the Syrians themselves, without interference from outside or the imposition of prepared recipes for development."

Russia has been Assad's most powerful international backer during the nearly 22-month-old conflict, joining with China to block three Western- and Arab-backed U.N. Security Council resolutions aimed to pressure him or push him from power.

In Geneva, Russia called for "a political transition process" based on an agreement by foreign powers last June.

Brahimi, who is trying to build on the agreement reached in Geneva on June 30, has met three times with senior Russian and U.S. diplomats since early December and met Assad in Damascus.

Russia and the United States disagreed over what the June agreement meant for Assad, with Washington saying it sent a clear signal he must go and Russia contending it did not.

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said there had been some progress toward a common view at Friday's meeting but did not provide details.

Moscow says it is not propping up Assad and, as rebels gain ground in the war, has given indications it is preparing for his possible exit. But it continues to insist he must not be forced out by foreign powers. Analysts say President Vladimir Putin wants to prevent the United States from using military force or support from the U.N. Security Council to bring down governments it opposes.

Bogdanov met Syrian Christian opposition campaigner Michel Kilo in Geneva in efforts to pursue close contacts with both Assad's government and opponents, the Foreign Ministry said.