Assad optimistic over peace talks

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad told visiting French lawmakers on Sunday that he was "optimistic" about new peace talks planned for later this month, said a member of the delegation.

Lawmaker Thierry Mariani said the Syrian president also declared himself willing to negotiate with nearly 100 rebel groups fighting against his government, excluding jihadist organizations.

Assad received the three French lawmakers in the capital Damascus on Sunday, a day after the delegation visited second city Aleppo, recently recaptured by the government.

Assad told the delegation he was "counting a lot" on the new peace talks expected to be convened later this month in the Kazakh capital Astana.

They are being organized by Russia and Turkey, who jointly brokered a fragile nationwide cease-fire currently in effect in Syria.

Assad government ally Iran is also helping to organize the talks, which Turkey suggested could be convened around the last week of January.

Mariani said Assad told the delegation he was "ready to talk" with some 91 rebel groups, not including the Islamic State group or former al-Qaida affiliate Fateh al-Sham Front.

Assad said he was "optimistic" and "ready for reconciliation with them on the condition that they lay down their arms," Mariani said.

Mariani added that al-Assad criticised Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, accusing him of jailing "more political prisoners than all the Arab countries put together."

And he said the Syrian leader dismissed accusations of war crimes by his forces by saying that no wars were clean.

"There were probably mistakes on the part of the government" that Assad said he would "condemn" and "regret," Mariani said.

More than 310,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government protests.

The violence has displaced more than half the country's population and caused massive destruction.

Meanwhile, a car bomb ripped through a busy commercial district in a rebel-held Syrian town along the Turkish border on Saturday, killing nearly 50 in a huge explosion that damaged buildings and left rescuers scrambling to find survivors amid the wreckage, opposition activists said.

Rescuers and doctors said the explosion was so large there were nearly 100 wounded and burned.

More than 50 wounded were transported to the Turkish border town of Kilis for treatment, as local hospitals couldn't cope.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Locals said a rigged tanker caused the explosion and blamed IS, who have carried out attacks in the town before.

The militant group has been increasingly pressed in Syria and Iraq, and has escalated its attacks against Turkey which backs Syrian opposition fighters in a campaign against the group in northern Syria.

Azaz, only a couple of miles from the Turkish border, is a key town on a route used by opposition fighters moving between Syria and Turkey, and is a hub for anti-government activists as well as many displaced from the recent fighting in Aleppo city. Activists say its prewar population of 30,000 has swelled.

(China Daily 01/09/2017 page11)