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Walid al-Moallem

DAMASCUS. — Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said yesterday that his country will take part in the upcoming Geneva II international conference on Syria, according to the state-run SANA news agency.
Syria will participate in the Geneva II conference based on the Syrian people’s “exclusive” right to draw their political future and to choose their leadership, al-Moallem said yesterday during his meeting with the visiting UN-Arab League joint special envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi.
While stressing that the dialogue should be based on rejecting any form of foreign intervention, al-Moallem said the dialogue should be between and led by the Syrians.

For his part, Brahimi stressed that the Syrians are the ones who could decide the shape of the transitional period in their country.
Brahimi made the remarks a day after an Arab newspaper misquoted him when speaking about the role of President Bashar al- Assad in the transitional period in Syria.

“What was published in the Arabic newspapers was not accurate and the translation was not accurate,” Brahimi said, stressing that “we are preparing for Geneva conference, and Geneva conference is basically a meeting between the Syrian parties and the Syrian parties are the ones who are going to identify the transitional period and the post-transitional period, not me.”
Brahimi flew in a day earlier to meet with top Syrian officials and opposition groups. — Xinhua.