Syria’s opposition wants a political transition without President Bashar al-Assad, the coordinator of an opposition negotiating body in future peace talks said on Friday.
Riad Hijab, elected on Thursday as coordinator by an opposition body set up in Saudi Arabia last week, said Security Council resolutions and the Geneva 1 road map drawn up in 2012 provided for a political transition in Syria without the president and a transitional governing council with full executive powers.
Hijab’s position highlights the deep differences over Assad’s fate and a future political transition in Syria among the parties.
Western diplomats say Western powers, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and others have reluctantly agreed to allow Assad to remain in place during a transition period, a compromise that has opened the door to a shift in Russia’s stance.
Moscow has made clear to Western nations that it has no objection to the president stepping down eventually as part of a peace process, in a softening of its staunch backing of Assad, diplomats said.
Like Russia, Iran is a firm ally of Assad and is helping him militarily against anti-government forces.
On Thursday, Hijab, who defected from Assad’s government in 2012, won the backing of more than two thirds of the 34 delegates of opposition groups summoned to Riyadh by world powers in a bid to unite them and settle longstanding rivalries.
A new body includes representatives of fighting groups such as the powerful Islamist Ahrar al-Sham and Free Syrian Army units. But it does not include the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, or Islamic State, among the strongest opponents of Assad.