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 TV 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.
The main exile-based opposition 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.
The comments by 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.”
The uprising against Assad began in March 2011, turned into an armed insurgency in response to a regime crackdown, and escalated into a civil war. The fighting has killed more than 70,000 people, uprooted more than 5 million and devastated large areas of the country.
The conflict has taken on strong sectarian overtones - most of the armed rebels are Sunni Muslims, a majority in Syria, while Assad has retained core support among the country’s minorities, including his own Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, along with Christians and Shiite Muslims.
Both the regime and the opposition still bet on a military victory but are being pressured by their backers to attend the Geneva talks, the international community’s only plan at the moment for trying to end the war.
Al-Moallem introduced a new Syrian condition for the talks Wednesday, saying, “Anything agreed on in Geneva will be held to a referendum in Syria.
“If it wins the support of the Syrian people, we will go ahead with it,” he added.
He said Assad will remain in his post at least until scheduled elections in 2014.
“From now until the next elections, President Bashar Assad is president of the Syrian Arab Republic,” he said. “Will Assad run in 2014 or not? This depends on the circumstances in 2014 and on the popular will. If the people want him to run, he will run. If the people don’t want that, I don’t think he will. Let us not jump the gun.”
The West, including the United States, has repeatedly called for Assad to step down. Al-Moallem said that “Americans have no business in deciding who will run Syria,” adding that this “would be a precedent in international relations that we must not allow.”
Al-Moallem also delivered the regime’s most serious warning to Israel since the start of the conflict, saying Syria “will retaliate immediately” if Israel strikes Syrian soil again. Earlier this month, Israeli warplanes struck near the capital of Damascus, targeting purported Iranian missiles intended for Assad ally Hezbollah, a Lebanese militia. Syria did not respond at the time.
Israel, though not officially acknowledging it was behind the strikes, has hinted it could strike again if more weapons are shipped.
In another warning, Israel’s defense chief said Tuesday that a Russian plan to supply sophisticated anti-aircraft missiles to Syria is a threat and signaled that Israel is prepared to use force to stop the delivery.
Russia has said it remains committed to the deal, despite U.S. and Israeli objections.
Al-Moallem said he did not know if the missiles had reached Syria yet, but noted that they are defensive weapons. “The people who are not planning to attack Syria are not scared of these missiles,” he said. “Those who fear them are those who intend to attack Syria.”
Meanwhile, the political opposition seemed in disarray at its marathon talks in Istanbul that began last week and were to continue today.
On Wednesday, exasperated grass-roots activists in Syria threatened to cut ties with the Syrian National Coalition if it doesn’t end the internal wrangling and come up with a political strategy. Syria’s main opposition group has long been accused of being out of touch with those inside Syria.
It was not clear if and when the opposition would make a decision on whether to attend the Geneva talks. In a statement late Wednesday, it demanded among other things that Hezbollah fighters and Iranian advisers be expelled from Syria, but it was not clear if these were conditions for attending the talks.
Hezbollah has been fighting alongside regime troops, and the militia’s growing role has been highlighted since the May 19 start of an offensive against the rebel-held western Syrian town of Qusair. Pro-Assad forces have gained ground in Qusair, though rebels have been able to hang on to some of their positions.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Jen Psaki said Hezbollah’s growing involvement marks a dangerous escalation. “We demand that Hezbollah withdraw its fighters from Syria immediately,” she said.
Asked if Iran should be invited to the Geneva conference, she said the final decision would have to be made together with other international partners and the United Nations.
“That decision has not yet been made,” she said.
“But let me say and take this opportunity to say that Iran has not played a constructive role in regard to Syria. They have sent weapons. They have sent money. They have provided fighters. They have financed Hezbollah. And we have no reason to believe that Iran wants a peaceful transition.”
Earlier, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said there are concerns an Iranian presence would be counterproductive, and that Tehran would try to leverage the Syria crisis to win international acquiescence in its suspected nuclear-weapons program.
On Wednesday, Britain said it has sent a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon with new information on three more purported chemical-weapons attacks by the Syrian government.
Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said his government has continued to provide new information to the secretary-general and the head of the U.N. team Ban appointed to investigate the attack accusations.
The Syrian government asked Ban to investigate a purported chemical-weapons attack by rebels on March 19 on Khan al-Assal village in Aleppo, but insists that a probe be limited to that attack. Syrian soldiers reportedly were killed and injured, but the rebels blame the attack on Syrian forces.
Ban is insisting on a broader investigation, including a December attack report in Homs raised by Britain and France. He appointed Swedish chemical-weapons expert Ake Sellstrom to lead a U.N. investigation. Syria has refused to allow his team into the country.
Meanwhile, the U.N. Human Rights Council called for an urgent investigation into alleged abuses by regime troops and Hezbollah fighters in Qusair.
It condemns the use of heavy weapons against civilians and other purported abuses by the Syrian regime.
The resolution, approved by a vote of 36-1 in the U.N. Human Rights Council and backed by the U.S., Turkey and Qatar, also condemned the presence of foreign fighters supporting Assad. Only Venezuela voted against it. Eight other nations in the 47-nation council abstained; two were absent.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement that “Syria is disintegrating before our eyes,” and that radicalism fed by chaos “increasingly threatens regional security.”
In Geneva, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said Syria’s civil war “reflects a colossal failure to protect civilians.”
Russia’s foreign minister earlier Wednesday sharply criticized the draft resolution on Syria, saying it was “odious and one-sided” and could undercut the efforts for a peace conference.
Elsewhere on Wednesday, Lebanon’s parliament moved to extend its term, skipping scheduled elections because of the country’s deteriorating security linked to the war in Syria.
The extension of the128-seat legislature’s term by up to 18 months, which was set for a vote Friday, marks the first time that the parliament has had to extend its term since Lebanon’s own civil war ended in 1990.
Sectarian clashes tied to Syria’s war have broken out with increasing regularity in Lebanon, a country with a religious divide that mirrors that of its neighbor. Rockets fired across the frontier have struck Lebanese border villages with growing frequency, killing several people - including a 20-year-old student this week.
At least 28 people have been killed and more than 200 wounded in battles in the northern city of Tripoli recently as supporters and opponents of Assad lobbed mortar shells and fired heavy machine guns at each other. That violence, coupled with the Hezbollah’s direct intervention in the conflict, has deeply shaken Lebanon.
The Syrian war also has forced some 500,000 Syrians to seek refuge in Lebanon, while others have fled to other countries in the region, such as Turkey and Jordan.
A Jordanian official said Wednesday that nearly 60,000 Syrian refugees have left the kingdom to go back home, some to fight Assad’s regime and others because living conditions in their camp became too difficult.
Jordan hosts more than half a million Syrians, which has put significant pressure on the kingdom. Out of that number, about 150,000 live at the Zaatari camp near the border with Syria, Jordan’s main camp for refugees.
Information for this article was contributed by Karin Laub, Lara Jakes, Zeina Karam, John Heilprin, Vladimir Isachenkov, Cassandra Vinograd, Edith M. Lederer and Dale Gavlak of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 05/30/2013