BEIRUT — Syria’s foreign minister laid out a hard line Wednesday, saying Bashar Assad will remain president at least until elections in 2014 and might seek another term, conditions that will make it difficult for the opposition to agree to U.N.-sponsored talks on ending the civil war.
Any deal reached in such talks would have to be put to a referendum, Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem added in a television interview, introducing a new condition that could complicate efforts by the U.S. and Russia to bring both sides together at an international conference in Geneva, possibly next month.
Drawing a tough line of its own, the main exile-based political group, the Syrian National Coalition, reiterated that any negotiations require “the head of the regime, security and military leadership to step down and be excluded from the political process.”
While the Assad regime has agreed in principle to attend peace talks, the opposition has not, insisting it first get international guarantees on the agenda and timetable.
The coalition has been meeting for the past week in Turkey but spent most of that time arguing about membership issues, rather than making a decision about Geneva.
In his wide-ranging comments, al-Moallem, an Assad stalwart with decades in top positions, reflected a new confidence by the government. The regime had seemed near collapse during a rebel offensive last summer but has scored a number of battlefield successes in recent weeks.
“Our armed forces have regained the momentum,” he told the Lebanese station Al-Mayadeen, suggesting that the regime is digging in.
Asked when the civil war might end, he said: “That depends on when the patience of those conspiring against Syria will run out.”
Also Wednesday, Britain said it has sent a letter to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon with new information on three further incidents of alleged chemical weapons use by the Syrian government.
The U.N. Human Rights Council overwhelmingly passed a resolution that calls for an immediate end to fighting around Qusair, a strategic Syrian town, and condemns the intervention of foreign combatants on the government’s side in the Syrian civil war. The 47-member council passed the resolution by a vote of 36-1, with eight abstentions and two absentees.
The New York Times contributed to this report.
