Syria Opp in Riyadh sees no role for Assad in transition

AMMAN: Syria’s main opposition stuck by its demand on Thursday that President Bashar al-Assad play no role in an interim period under any UN -sponsored peace deal, despite speculation it could soften its stance because of Assad’s battlefield strength. The participants stressed that this (the transition) cannot happen without the departure of Bashar al Assad and his clique at the start of the interim period,” opposition groups said in a communique at the end of a meeting in Saudi Arabia. The opposition groups held the meeting to seek a unified position ahead of UN -backed peace talks, after two year of Russian military intervention that has helped Assad’s government recapture all of Syria’s major cities. The communique said the participants supported a UN based political process that would allow Syria to undergo “a radical political transition” from an “authoritarian system” to a democracy where free elections would be upheld. “The political process has not achieved its goal because of the regime’s violations,” the communique said, citing the bombing of civilian areas, the siege of rebel held areas and the detention of tens of thousands of dissidents.