| It's a trap... |
But Assad's enemies say a new election would keep him in power unless other steps were taken to remove him. His government held an election as recently as last year, which he easily won. His opponents have always rejected any proposal for a transition unless he is removed.
Iranian officials attended international peace talks on Syria for the first time on Friday in Vienna, a month after the balance of power in the 4-year-old civil war shifted in Assad's favor with Russia launching air strikes against his foes. Iran appears to be adjusting its stance in ways that could create more ground for compromise with Western countries that are coming to accept Assad cannot be driven from power by force.
| The Iranians are as serious in dumping Assad as they are in complying with the Obama accord... |
A senior official from the Middle East familiar with the Iranian position said that could go as far as ending support for Assad after the transition period.
"Talks are all about compromises and Iran is ready to make a compromise by accepting Assad remaining for six months," the official told Reuters. "Of course, it will be up to the Syrian people to decide about the country's fate."
Syrian opposition figures, already bristling from having been excluded from Friday's talks about the fate of their country,
"Who is mad enough to believe that under these circumstances in Syria, anybody can hold elections?" said George Sabra, a member of the Western-backed political opposition, the exiled Syrian National Coalition, told Reuters. "Bashar al-Assad and his regime is the root of the terrorism in Syria."
They say any fair vote is impossible in wartime conditions in which nearly half of the country is displaced.
"In the shadow of this anarchy there will not be real elections, therefore we reject them absolutely," said Ahmed al-Seoud, a fighter in the rebel 13th Division which has been fighting in the western Hama province.
Abu Ghaith al-Shami, a spokesman for the rebel Alwiyat Seif al-Sham group which is fighting in the south, said Assad's participation in an election was unthinkable: "The fate of Assad and all criminals should be in court following the massacres committed by him and those with him, towards the Syrian people."
Nevertheless, a commitment from Iran to a defined time limit for a transition could be viewed as a significant new undertaking, potentially forming a basis for future diplomacy at a time when Assad's position has been strengthened by Russia's decision to join the war on his side.
A
All previous efforts to find a diplomatic solution to Syria's civil war have collapsed over the insistence of the United States, European powers, Arab states and Turkey that Assad agree to leave power. In the past, Iranian delegations were excluded for refusing to sign up to U.N.-backed proposals that called for a transition of power in Damascus. Tehran has long said it was not committed to Assad as an individual, but that it was up to Syrians to decide his fate, a position that amounted to an endorsement of election results that confirmed him in office.
Russia's participation in the conflict on Assad's behalf creates a new incentive for a diplomatic push to end a war that has killed more than 250,000 people and driven more than 10 million people from their homes. Western countries that have called for Assad's removal from power appear to have accepted that he cannot be forced out on the battlefield.
The United States has said it is looking for signs of compromise from Tehran and Moscow at Friday's conference, defending its decision to talk directly to Iran about the Syrian conflict for the first time. The conference will also be attended by European powers, Turkey and Iran's arch enemy in the region, Saudi Arabia.
"I am hopeful that we can find a way forward," US Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters shortly before the meeting began on Friday morning. "It is very difficult."
| It's very difficult. No kidding. Thanks for that Jahwn... |
The divide between Assad's allies and Western and Arab nations seeking his ouster has deepened since Moscow began air strikes against opposition forces in Syria a month ago. Russia
The United States is leading its own bombing campaign against Islamic State, the world's most violent jihadist group, but says Assad's presence makes the situation worse. Washington has said it could tolerate Assad during a short transition period, but that he would then have to exit the political stage.
| To where -- Mauritania? The day he leaves power he's a dead man and he knows it... |
| He was elected the way Saddam was "elected", the way Stalin was "elected". Anyone who believes Assad was elected is a gullible fool. |
Assad's office said on Tuesday political initiatives could not work in Syria before