Bashar al-Assad's future irrelevant to talks

Head of the Syrian government delegation Bashar Jaafari told press Monday that the fate of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is not an issue which should be brought up at talks aiming to broker a political end to the five-year conflict.

"The references of our talks do not give any indications whatsoever with regards with the issue of the President of the Syrian Arab Republic," Jaafari explained.

"We have been working with the special envoy seriously speaking on too many issues. Some of them are related to the format, we need to build a strong format that would allow us to move ahead towards getting into the substantive part. This is something that has not been done yet," he added.

According to the diplomat, progress of proximity talks involving the Syrian Government and the Saudi-backed High Negotiations Committee (HNC) has been lagging.

The issue of political transition, a central tenet of UN Security Council resolution 2254 mandating a peace process roadmap, remains a major sticking point for both sides.

To date the HNC, the umbrella group for Syrian opposition factions locked in bloody conflict with al-Assad, has produced a substantive paper with points outlying their vision of governance and political transition.

Though the Syrian government delegation has yet to relay such an overview, it submitted a positional paper on the "basic elements for a political solution" on March 14 when talks kicked-off.

A common platform of understanding is expected to be reached before the first phase of the latest round of intra-Syrian negotiations come to a close on March 24.
 Xinhua -china.org.cn
22/3/16