“The solution must be a Syrian solution, regardless of whether foreign powers recognise it. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that the Syrian people recognise it,” he said.
The Syrian government has been battling to crush a 31-month rebellion triggered by his forces’ bloody crackdown on Arab Spring-inspired democracy protests. More than 115,000 people are believed to have been killed in the conflict.
The United States and Russia have been trying to organise the conference on the heels of a landmark agreement they reached for the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons.
On Monday, the head of an international mission to carry out that task arrived in Syria, a statement said.
“Today, the Special Coordinator, Ms Sigrid Kaag arrived in Damascus,” to lead a joint mission of the United Nations and the Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
The Dutch UN official leads a team tasked with inspecting more than 20 sites by the end of the month and destroying Syria’s chemical stockpiles by mid-2014 under the US-Russian deal.
As diplomats wrangled over the talks, government forces killed a rebel commander, Lieutenant Colonel Yasser Abbud, during clashes at Tafas, in the southern province of Daraa, sources on both sides said.
Daraa is the birthplace of an uprising that erupted in March 2011 and flared into the civil war.