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France sees "central role" of Syrian opposition in peace talks

Xinhua, November 7, 2015 Adjust font size:

Syria's National Coalition has to play a "central role" in peace talks and to unite all the country's factions to start negotiations of a political and democratic transition in the conflict-ridden Arab state, a French official said on Friday.

"The coalition must play a central role in bringing together the moderate opposition," Romain Nadal, the foreign ministry's spokesman said.

Nadal also reiterated the need to start negotiating "a political transition that keeps Bashar al-Assad away from power, but includes members of the regime and the opposition and preserves the Syrian state."

Earlier on Friday, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius met the visiting coalition's president Khaled Khoja in a bid to bring Syrian government officials and opposition members to the negotiating table to come up with the political roadmap needed to end the four-year-long civil war.

Breaking rank with its European partners, France was the first to hail Syria's new opposition coalition as the sole representative of its people and as the "future government of a democratic Syria." Endit