REPORT: Syria says it has no preconditions for peace talks

The U.S. State Department called on Lebanon's Hezbollah on Wednesday to withdraw its fighters from Syria immediately.            

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said it was "unacceptable" and "dangerous" that Hezbollah had sent fighters into Syria. "We demand that Hezbollah withdraw its fighters from Syria immediately," she said at a regular daily news briefing.                 

For his part, the White House spokesman Jay Carney said that President Barack Obama has not ruled out the idea of a no-fly zone over Syria in response to the ongoing conflict there.                              

"Every option available to the president remains on the table when it comes to our policy towards Syria. That of course includes the possibility of a no-fly zone," Carney said.         

Syrian forces seized an air base in Dabaa village near the town of Qusayr, in a major blow for rebels in their week-long battle with government forces backed by Hezbollah fighters, state media said.                                              

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Hezbollah and the Syrian Republican Guards sent reinforcements to the strategic town of al-Qusayr in central Syria in an attempt to take control over the opposition stronghold.                        

The Observatory stressed that Hezbollah members are trained to fight “guerrilla warfare”, noting that the reinforcements reveal that they are preparing a widespread operation.                               

The Syrian Observatory pointed out that Sunni Lebanese fighters are also participating in the Syrian battles alongside the opposition, stating that the conflict is turning into a sectarian war.                                             

The main United Nations human rights body condemned Syria and its use of foreign fighters and called for a halt to its attacks with missiles and other heavy weapons on civilians in the town of Qusayr.                                 

The 47-member Geneva forum adopted a resolution brought by Qatar, Turkey and the United States with a vote of 36 states with, one (Venezuela) against and eight abstentions. Two delegations were absent for the vote.         

More than 70,000 people have been killed in the Syrian civil war.                                 


POSITIONS:                        

Syria's government has no preconditions for attending planned peace talks aimed at ending the two-year-old Syrian conflict, but is awaiting more details, its foreign minister said on Wednesday.                          

Walid al-Moualem, speaking from Damascus, said his government had yet to decide on the makeup of its delegation to take part in the proposed talks in Geneva.          

Moualem added that President Bashar Assad will remain Syria's president at least until scheduled elections in 2014 and may run for another term.       

Earlier, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu joined senior Arab and Western envoys in a last-ditch effort to solve a crisis in Syria's opposition which threatens to derail a planned peace conference.                                             

The Syrian National Coalition members meeting in Istanbul have so far failed to agree to attend the Geneva conference, provisionally planned for June, or who should represent them, and is deadlocked over appointing a new leadership and Western-backed proposals to widen its membership.                       

"Davutoglu addressed the coalition and told them that the international community is not taking sides but that the coalition needs to be representative to retain credibility," one source at the meeting said.                   

"The message was clear that if they don't re-organize themselves there are other parties that could attend Geneva."                             

For his part, the French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius called the EU decision to lift the arms embargo against Syria an "option" but said that the lifting of the embargo doesn't mean "delivering weapons."                                     

In this regard, Fabius said Iran should not attend the Geneva negotiations, because he fears they'll use the conference to stall the talks for their own nuclear ambitions.                              

Fabius' comments came as the Syrian opposition coalition urged the European Union to quickly supply rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces with sophisticated weapons to help them overthrow his regime.                                 

In turn, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged his ministers to abstain from making any comments regarding the situation in Syria.                         

For his part, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov criticized the US-backed draft resolution condemning Syria’s government ahead of a debate at UN Human rights council.      


REUTERS/AP/LBCI

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