Local Editor

Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al-Mikdad stressed Thursday that nobody can stop Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from seeking re-election and that a government team has been formed for peace talks.

"Nobody has the right to interfere and say he must run or he should not run,", he added, and pointed out that "President al-Assad in my opinion should be a candidate but he will decide when the time comes for him to decide."

He further asked the opposition: "why a Syrian national does not have the right to be a candidate? Who can prevent him? Any Syrian national can be candidate."
"The ballot boxes will decide who will lead Syria."

Al-Mikdad also said his country has formed a nine-member delegation supported by five advisers to take part in the so-called Geneva-2 talks brokered by the United States and Russia.
"We are ready by all means and will announce the names of our delegation very quickly," he said, and added: "We shall see the results of the discussions because the Americans are given the task of establishing an opposition delegation."
"The Americans are expected to give the names tomorrow."

Al-Mikdad said there would be no "red lines" at the negotiating table or preconditions set "but we shall not allow any intervention in the discussion among Syrians."
He said that opposition members and "even independents" could sit alongside the regime in any agreed transitional arrangements to end the Syrian conflict.

"For us the most important is to keep the integrity of the state, not to create any vacuum and to work for the establishment of a national unity government broadly representative," he said.

The Syrian official pointed out the format for the talks.

"The mechanism established by the UN is that both of us will address League envoy al-Akhdar Ibrahimi. Ibrahimi will be in the middle and he will be leading the discussions," he said.
Al-Mikdad described the United States and Russia as the "initiators" and said their representatives "will be seated in two rooms near the talks."

Their role will be to provide "advise... to any delegation that wants to tell them about difficulties" and help "solve problems" that may arise.
Al-Mikdad had harsh words for Saudi Arabia, which has supported rebels fighting to oust Assad.
"I think that if the world wants to avoid another 11 September incident, they must start telling Saudi Arabia 'enough is enough'," he said, referring to al-Qaida's 9/11 attacks on the US."

"Saudi Arabia should be put on the list of countries supporting terrorism," said al-Mikdad, while rejecting opposition to the participation at the peace talks for Syria's ally Iran.
Al-Mikdad said: "It's a tragedy that the French and the Americans are insisting that Iran will not attend while Saudi Arabia which is destroying Syria will attend ... It is absolutely unacceptable."

Source: News agencies, Edited by website team