MIDEAST-CRISIS/SYRIA-RUSSIA-NEWSER Syrian opposition leader says did not discuss Assad's future with Russia's Lavrov

Record ID: 143953

  • Title: MIDEAST-CRISIS/SYRIA-RUSSIA-NEWSER Syrian opposition leader says did not discuss Assad's future with Russia's Lavrov
  • Date: 14th August 2015
  • Summary: MOSCOW, RUSSIA (AUGUST 14, 2015) (REUTERS) LEADER OF WESTERN BACKED SYRIAN NATIONAL COALITION OPPOSITION GROUP, KHALED KHOJA, ARRIVING FOR NEWS CONFERENCE MEDIA (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) LEADER OF WESTERN BACKED SYRIAN NATIONAL COALITION OPPOSITION GROUP, KHALED KHOJA, SAYING (ACCORDING TO OFFICIAL TRANSLATION): "We also told that a transition period in Syria should be in line
  • Embargoed: 29th August 2015 13:00
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  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAAD0D0BHCQJKN752ZNGG0XR0WQ
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: The leader of the western-backed Syrian National Coalition opposition group Khaled Khoja said the future of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was not discussed during talks with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow.
    He reiterated his group's position that Assad should not be a part of any power institutions in Syria in the future.
    "We also told that a transition period in Syria should be in line with the principles of Geneva and in the future all transitional bodies cannot include Bashar al-Assad. So there is no place for Bashar al-Assad in the future of Syria, in the future power institutions. It is necessary to protect power institutions from collapse," said Khaled Khoja at a news conference in Moscow on Friday (August 14).
    Russia is pushing for a coalition to fight Islamic State insurgents -- who have seized swathes of northern and eastern Syria -- that would involve Assad, a long-time ally of Moscow.
    An uprising against four decades of Assad family rule broke out in 2011 and turned into a full-blown civil war in which Islamist militants have become the strongest element fighting Damascus.
    Khoja said he did not discuss Assad's replacement during his meetings with Lavrov and Russian foreign ministry officials.
    "We did not discuss alternative candidates to Bashar al-Assad. But there are 23 million people in Syria. Many of them have indeed left the country or their home towns. But nonetheless Syrian people both inside Syria and beyond its borders are ready to take responsibility and lead the country through the transitional period," Khoja said.
    "I want to say that the Russian leadership is not clinging to Bashar al-Assad. It is coming from the principle of territorial integrity of Syria and does not want to see collapse of the main power institutions in Syria," Khoja added.
    Despite having only tenuous links with fighters on the ground and seen as out of touch with the general population, the National Coalition remains one of the main parties in international discussions to find solutions to the almost four-year-old civil war.
    Khoja, a 49-year-old Damascus-born doctor and businessman, took over as president of the coalition in January 2015. He did not attend two rounds of the Syrian peace talks in Moscow earlier.
    Moscow hopes to host another round of talks between Damascus and various Syrian opposition groups. Two earlier rounds of such consultations failed to yield any breakthrough.
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