Syrian opposition figures yesterday rejected a Russian draft proposal for a process aimed at solving the nearly five-year war, saying Moscow’s aim was to keep Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in power and marginalize dissenting voices.
A draft document obtained by Reuters on Tuesday showed Moscow would like the Syrian government and opposition to agree on launching a constitutional reform process of up to 18 months, followed by early presidential elections.
Russia, which with Iran has been al-Assad’s top ally during the civil war, has denied any document is being prepared before international peace talks in Vienna this week.
The text does not rule out al-Assad’s participation in early presidential elections, something his enemies say is impossible if there is to be peace.
“The Syrian people have never accepted the dictatorship of [al-] Assad and they will not accept that it is reintroduced or reformulated in another way,” said Monzer Akbik, a member of the Western-backed Syrian National Coalition.
“The Russians are now trying to play the game they have been playing since Geneva,” he said, referring to UN-led peace talks that collapsed last year.
In other developments, Syria’s army broke a more than year-long siege by militants of a military air base in the country’s north on Tuesday, scoring its first major breakthrough since Russia’s air campaign began.
Troops, backed by pro-government militia, broke through the Islamic State (IS) group’s siege of the Kweyris military airport in Aleppo Province, a photographer said.
A group of soldiers penetrated IS lines west of the airport and reached government troops inside the base, firing into the air in celebration.
Experts said the base could be used by Russian planes in their air war against rebels fighting the regime of al-Assad, aiding their efforts to retake Syria’s second city of Aleppo.
Russia launched air strikes in Syria in support of al-Assad at the end of September, but the regime has still struggled to advance against opposition forces and securing Kweyris would mark their first major victory in the Aleppo area.
However, the advance came as at least 22 people were killed in one of the bloodiest mortar attacks on the regime’s coastal bastion of Latakia in the conflict.
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