Opposition says Syria must end massacres before talks can start

A spokesman for the Syrian National Coalition, Khalid Saleh, also said the group will not support any international peace efforts in light of Iran’s and Hezbollah’s “invasion” of Syria.

Saleh was referring to the increasingly prominent roles Iran and the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group have had in backing President Bashar Assad’s forces on the ground.

The opposition’s announcement came just a day after Syrian foreign minister Walid al-Moallem said the government would attend a planned peace conference in Geneva but laid out terms that made it difficult for the opposition to accept.

Al-Moallem said Assad will remain president at least until elections next year and might seek another term, and also that any deal reached in such talks would have to be put to a referendum.

The Syrian National Coalition, the main exile-based political group, insists that Assad must step down and be excluded from the political process.

“The talk about the international conference and a political solution to the situation in Syria has no meaning in light of the massacres that are taking place,” Saleh told reporters in Istanbul, where the opposition has been holding week-long deliberations on a strategy for the Geneva talks.

“The National Coalition will not participate in an international conference and will not support any efforts in light of Iran’s malicious invasion of Syria,” he added.

Syrian president Bashar Assad has been quoted by a Lebanese TV station as saying a shipment of Russian air defence missiles has arrived in his country.

Al-Manar TV, owned by the militant Hezbollah group, scheduled an exclusive interview with Mr Assad later yesterday.

The station released Mr Assad’s comment on the long-range S-300 Russian missiles through its news service.

Israel’s defence chief, Moshe Yaalon, said that a Russian plan to supply Syria with the weapons is a threat and signalled that Israel is prepared to use force to stop the delivery.

The European Union lifted an arms embargo on Syria on Monday, enabling individual countries of the 27-member bloc to send weapons to rebels fighting Assad’s regime. The move raised fears of an arms race in the Middle East.

Israel recently carried out airstrikes in Syria that are believed to have destroyed weapons bound for Hezbollah.