'Assad can't be excluded from 2014 vote'
2013-01-15 16:01
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Syria
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Damascus -President Bashar Assad should be allowed to
stand in the 2014 election like any other candidate and it is up to the Syrians
themselves to decide their future leadership, a senior official has said.
"We are opening the way for democracy, or deeper
democracy. In a democracy you don't tell somebody not to run," said Syrian
Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Muqdad in an interview with the BBC on Monday.
A plan to end Syria's civil war, agreed in Geneva in June
during talks among global powers and the UN, envisages the establishment of a
transitional government but it does not refer to Assad going - a key demand of
the opposition.
Muqdad's remarks come after Assad unveiled in a rare
speech on 5 January in Damascus his own three-step peace initiative for the
strife-torn country.
He offered dialogue with the opposition to end the
conflict - but only with elements he deemed acceptable, not rebel-affiliated
groups he termed "killers" and "terrorists" manipulated by
foreign powers.
His plan was rejected outright by the entire opposition
as well as by the West, and it was criticised heavily by UN-Arab League peace
envoy Brahimi who termed it "perhaps even more sectarian, more
one-sided" than previous such initiatives.
In Monday's interview, Muqdad reiterated Damascus'
long-held view that calls for Assad to quit immediately are foreign-backed and
illegitimate.
"It is a coup d'etat if we listen what to those
armed groups and those elements of Syria are proposing," said Muqdad.
"The president now and many other candidates who may
run will go to the people, put their programmes and be elected by the
people," Muqdad told the BBC.
"So the ballot box will be the place where the
future of the leadership of Syria will be decided."
The UN says that more than 60 000 people have died in the
Syria conflict which began 22 months ago, on 15 March 2011, with peaceful
protests that quickly erupted into deadly violence in the wake of a harsh
regime crackdown.
