MOSCOW: A Syrian government delegation will meet officials in Moscow on Monday to discuss preparations for an international peace conference Russia, the US and the UN are trying to convene, the Interfax news agency reported.
The Russian Foreign Ministry declined comment and Interfax cited a ministry source for the report. Russia and the US announced plans for a conference in May which would bring together representatives of the Syrian government and opposition in Geneva.
The opposition Syrian National Coalition agreed on Monday to attend the conference but said there could be no role for President Bashar Al Assad in Syria’s future. Russia says Assad’s exit from power cannot be a precondition for talks aimed at ending the civil war. Russia has been the Syrian government’s most powerful backer during the conflict, sending arms and blocking Western efforts to pressure Assad.
President Vladimir Putin praised Assad’s readiness to send a delegation to the conference when he spoke to the Syrian leader by telephone on Thursday, their first conversation in at least two years.
Putin has said Russia has no special relationship with Syria, which buys weapons from Moscow and hosts its only naval base outside the former Soviet Union. Russia has also accused Assad of mishandling peaceful protests in 2011 and failing to avert the slide into civil war.
Reuters
TUNIS: Some 250 Tunisian protesters gathered yesterday outside the government’s headquarters, demanding the resignation of the Islamist-led ruling coalition, with no end in sight for a months-old political crisis.
At the demonstration, called by the leftists Popular Front, activists slammed the ruling Islamist party Ennahda, shouting slogans such as: “Government of failure, leave!”. “This government which led national dialogue to failure by its lack of commitment, should hand in resignation as soon as possible,” said Abdelmajid Belaid, whose brother Chokri was shot dead by suspected Islamist gunmen in Tunis in February. He accused the coalition, and Ennahda in particular, of “doing nothing but impoverishing and terrorising Tunisians.”
Tunisia has been rocked by violence this year, and a second political assassination by suspected jihadists in July has caused political deadlock. The Islamists have refused the opposition’s demand to step down until key political objectives have been reached. Under a road map agreed to last month, both sides pledged to end the crisis by negotiating an interim government of independents, drafting a much-delayed constitution and preparing for elections. Agencies
