Syrian Opposition: Here's What The Government Would Look Like Without Assad

The Syrian opposition has just released a paper outlining their future vision of Syria.

Tellingly, no mention of Assad was included. Instead, the opposition envisions a transitional government overseen by the UN.

The Syrian opposition and the Assad regime have been involved in peace talks on and off for the past month in Geneva. Little progress has been made, and the two sides have had problems even agreeing to an agenda.

The paper is confidential, but Reuters managed to have access to its contents.

We have summarized the key points below:

• The Syrian opposition has called for a transitional government, overseen by the UN as a cease fire is put in place.
• This transitional government will have complete executive control, including control over both the army and any security apparatus.
• All ethnic groups in Syria will have equal rights and will be invited to participate in the transitional government.
• All troops with be withdrawn and armed groups will be disarmed.
• All foreign fighters will be evicted from Syrian conflict.
• The transitional government will be responsible for halting all further ethnic and sectarian conflict.

Currently, the Assad regime has yet to respond to the memo directly, although they have expressed interest in the expulsion of foreign fighters.

Whether this memo could be the beginning of a winding down of the conflict is unlikely.

Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad told Reuters that the government believes that negotiations must follow the agenda set out by the 2012 Geneva communique.

A paper by the opposition that fails to mention Assad is not likely to change this view.