Syria Opposition Chief: Ready for Talks with Government

Local Editor

The head of the so-called Syria's main foreign-based opposition coalition, Mouaz Al-Khatib, said on Wednesday he was ready to hold talks with representatives of President Bashar al-Assad outside Syria if authorities released tens of thousands of detainees.
Syrian officials said this week that political opposition figures could return to Damascus for "national dialogue" and that any charges against them would be dropped.
However, division among the Syrian opposition appeared after the so-called Syrian National Council slammed the remarks.

"The Syrian National Council confirms that [Khatib's] statements do not reflect the Syrian National Coalition's stance, and contradicts the coalition's basic structure and the Doha agreement that created the coalition," a statement released by the group on Facebook said.
"I am prepared to sit down directly with representatives of the Syrian regime in Cairo, Tunis or Istanbul," al-Khatib said in a statement on his Facebook page.
He set out two conditions of his own: the release of what he said was 160,000 detainees held in Syrian prisons and intelligence facilities, and instructions to Syrian embassies to issue new passports to Syrians whose documents had expired.

Earlier, al-Assad announced in early January plans for a reconciliation conference with opposition figures "who have not betrayed Syria", though he said there must first be an end to regional funding and arming of rebels fighting to overthrow him.
"Should we speak to gangs recruited abroad that follow the orders of foreigners? Should we have official dialogue with a puppet made by the West, which has scripted its lines?" he said.


Source: News Agencies, Edited by moqawama.org