Al-Akkam says President al-Assad wants ‘safe transition’ while opposition seeks to disassemble the state

A member of the Syrian government delegation to Geneva talks has declared that President Bashar al-Assad wants a ‘safe transition process’, ruling out direct talks between government delegation and opposition groups in the next round of talks to be held next week in Geneva.

Mohammad Khir Ahmad al-Akkam told the Damascus-based al-Watan newspaper that President al-Assad referred in his recent interview with the RIA NovostI and Sputnik news agencies to the ‘safe transition’ which preserves sovereignty and the present constitute.

“The transition means to form a new government including opposition figures and to move from one constitution to another one voted by the Syrian people,” Akkam added, indicating that the other side in the Geneva talks wants to disassemble the authorities and to re-assemble them in accordance with the vision of the states that support the opposition- external opposition.

He described the other side’s translation to the transition process as ‘unacceptable’.  

Al-Akkam, in addition, asserted that the six month period being talked about is enough to complete a new constitution.

He ruled out direct talks between the government delegation and the opposition groups in the next Geneva talks due to the difficulty of unifying the opposition groups’ visions and disagreement over principles of talks.

“The Syrian-Syrian dialogue in Geneva is progressing ‘slowly’, and I see that such talks are useful,” the government delegation’s member concluded.

Basma Qaddour