Syria foes clash over Assad, atrocities at first meeting

News Manager

Milforums News Bot
By John Irish and Stephanie Nebehay MONTREUX, Switzerland (Reuters) - Syria's government and opposition, meeting for the first time at a U.N. peace conference, angrily spelled out their hostility on Wednesday as world powers also offered sharply divergent views on forcing out Bashar al-Assad. Opposition leader Ahmed Jarba accused the president of Nazi-style war crimes and demanded the Syrian government delegation at the one-day meeting in Switzerland immediately sign up to an international plan for handing over power. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem insisted Assad would not bow to outside demands and painted a graphic picture of "terrorist" rebel atrocities supported by Arab and Western states who back the opposition and were present in the room. The United States and Russia, co-sponsors of the conference which U.N. officials hope will lead to negotiations in Geneva from Friday, also revealed their differences over Assad during a day of formal presentations at Montreux on Lake Geneva.




More...
 
Back
Top