SYRIA OPPOSITION LEADER URGES ASSAD TO NEGOTIATE

Damascus, 24 Rabiul Awwal 1434/5 February 2013 (MINA) – Syrian Opposition Leader Moaz Al Khatib urged Syrian President Bashar Al Assad for talks to spare further bloodshed in the country’s conflict since 2011.

“I ask regime (Assad) to send Farouq al-Sharaa (Vice President), if it receive this idea to sit down together,” Khatib told Al-Arabiya TV.

In separate comments to al-Jazeera TV monitored by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA) Tuesday, Khatib said, “The regime must take a clear stand (on dialogue) and we say we will extend our hand for the interest of people and to help the regime leave peacefully.”

The opposition leader has called on President Bashar al-Assad to respond to the offer of peace talks, in which the initiative is backed by the U.S. However, so far there has been no response from Assad.

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Khatib talked in Munich over the weekend with Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akhbar Salehi and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in which both countries strongly supports the leadership of Assad. Khatib also met U.S. Vice President Joe Biden.

Speaking after a meeting with the three countries at the end of last week, Khatib said none of them were able to end the civil war and Syria must find their own resolution.

“The big power has no vision … Only Syrians themselves can be a solution,” said Khatib. The Men born in 1960, said in a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister that he discussed the need to prevent the Syrian crisis into an internal Sunni-Shiite conflict.

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Khatib said that was not a “betrayal” for dialogue to end the conflict in which more than 60,000 people were killed, and 700,000 were expelled from their country as well as millions homeless are starving.

Assad announced last month a plan of reconciliation talks to end the violence but the Shiite leaders said Syria would not be in dialogue with people who are called traitors or “puppets made the West”.

Syria uprising erupted 22 months ago with largely peaceful protests, rising into a civil war with the majority Sunni Muslim revolt against Assad, who is from Syria’s Alawite minority and whose family has ruled Syria for 42 years.

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The violence has divided major powers, with Russia and China blocked a draft of UN resolution that declared sanctions against Assad, in which both countries as well as Iran strongly supports the Assad government.

While United States, the European Union and Sunni Muslim Gulf Arab states supports the opposition,, saying the Syrian opposition is the legitimate representative of Syria. (T/P03/E1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)