Annan’s plan likely to exclude Assad from Syria’s transition

The international plan on Syria’s transition will exclude President Bashar al-Assad from the future government, a U.N. diplomat told Al Arabiya on Friday, citing the draft plan by international envoy Kofi Annan, to be proposed at a conference in geneva on Saturday.

The plan would exclude from government those “whose continued presence and participation would undermine the credibility of the transition and jeopardize stability and reconciliation,” he said.

Diplomats had earlier said this means President Bashar al-Assad could be ruled out of the government. Opposition figures could also be kept out under the same formula, they stressed.

The conflict in Syria will only end when all sides are assured that there is a peaceful way towards a common future for all in Syria, the diplomat told Al Arabiya.

The steps for such a transition plan should include, according to the diplomat, an “establishment of a Transitional Government of National Unity” that would form a “neutral environment in which the transition can take place.”

The diplomat stressed to Al Arabiya that the Syrian people should “determine the future of the country,” according to the plan. “All groups and segments of society in Syria must be enabled to participate in a National Dialogue process.”

The Government of National Unity “would exercise full executive powers.” It could include “members of the present government and the opposition and other groups,” the diplomat said.

On this basis, “there can be a review of the constitutional order and the legal system. The result of constitutional drafting would be subject to popular approval,” according to the diplomat.

Citing Annan’s draft plan, once the new constitutional order is established, it is necessary to prepare for “free and fair multi-party elections for the new institutions and offices.”

According to the diplomat, “women must be fully represented in all aspects of the transition.”

Any transition requires “consolidation of full calm and stability.” The diplomat added that “all parties must cooperate with the Transitional Government of National Unity in ensuring the permanent cessation of violence.”

This includes “completion of withdrawals” and addressing the issue of the “disarming, demobilization and reintegration of armed groups.”

The diplomat said that the plan stressed that effective steps should also be taken to “ensure that vulnerable groups are protected and immediate action is taken to address humanitarian issues in areas of need.” Furthermore, the plan underlines the “commitment to accountability and national reconciliation.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov insisted on Thursday that Assad’s fate “must be decided within the framework of a Syrian dialogue by the Syrian people themselves.”

He said world powers had yet to agree on any final resolution based on Annan’s proposals for Saturday’s meeting in Geneva.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in contrast to Lavrov, rejected any suggestion that Annan was proposing a transition imposed from outside.

“In his transition document it is a Syrian-led transition, but you have to have a transition that complies with international standards on human rights, accountable governance, the rule of law,” she said before heading for Saint Petersburg, where she is supposed to meet with Lavrov later in the day.

Russia has throughout the crisis refused to call for the exit of Assad and has also defied pressure to stop delivering military hardware to his regime, a long-time ally.

Of the more than 15,800 people killed since the uprising broke out, nearly 4,700 have lost their lives since April 12, when a U.N.-backed ceasefire brokered by Annan was supposed to have taken effect, Syrian activists said. The U.N. put the figure at 10,000 people killed since the beginning of the crisis 16 months ago.