Al-Jaafari: Al-Assad’s Future out of Discussion
Local Editor
The Syrian government's chief negotiator said his team was pushing for an expanded government led by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad at UN-led peace talks, and that al-Assad's own future was not up for negotiation.
Bashar Ja'afari told Lebanese TV news channel al Maydeen the larger government they wanted would preserve all the country's existing institutions.
"In Geneva we have one mandate only to arrive at an expanded national government only, this is our mandate ... this is the goal we strive to achieve in the Geneva peace talks," Ja'afari said in comments broadcast overnight.
Earlier, held a meeting with UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Misutra at the UN HQ in Geneva.
In a press conference after the conclusion of the talks, head of al-Jaafari said that at the beginning of the session they set aside sufficient time to discuss the danger of the provocative and unprecedented act carried out by the "Israeli" occupation government's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by holding a meeting in the occupied Syrian Golan.
Al-Jaafari said that the Syrian government responded to this "Israeli" provocation by sending two urgent letters to the UN Secretary-General and UN Security Council, calling on them to intervene immediately to condemn that meeting and request that it's never repeated, particularly since it violates law no. 497 for 1981.
"We reaffirmed to de Mistura the Syrian Arab Republic's right to recover the occupied Syrian Golan up to the 4th of June 1967 line using all legal recourses guaranteed by the UN Charter, including article 51 on the right to self defense," he said.
Al-Jaafari stressed that this provocative behavior by "Israeli" against the Syrian people, state, and government affirms indisputably "Israel's" cooperation with al-Nusra and Daesh [Arabic Acronym for "ISIS"] terrorists who are active at the disengagement line in the occupied Syrian Golan and who occupied posts for the UNDOF.
He further added that the fact that these events happened concurrently proves the existence of close ties between "Israel" on one side, some Arabs on another side, regrettably, and the terrorists inside Syria.
"I reiterate in this regard what was quoted by one member of the Riyadh delegation, who said that an element from Ahrar al-Cham terrorist group, which is linked to Jabhat al-Nusra and al- Qaeda, is present in Geneva and participating with the Saudi delegation in the meetings," he said.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
