Assad ouster precondition for sitting for talks

The National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces said, Thursday, it will not participate in the Geneva Conference, expected next month, "unless a final deadline" was set for President Bashar Al-Assad to leave power. Officials in the coalition who were holding meetings in Istanbul said that they would not forego this precondition or the condition that a deadline for seeking a settlement also be agreed. And while welcoming international efforts to reach a settlement, Syrian opposition members would not participate in any conference unless "binding international guarantees" are put on the table while seeking to end the two-year bloodshed, they stressed. The opposition's meetings which lasted for seven days still failed to bring consensus among the members regarding representation in the Geneva Conference, should the coalition take part.