DHAKA: Britain, France and China will be involved in a peace conference on Syria due in Geneva in November.

French foreign minister Laurent Fabius said Monday, reports Hurriyet.

The US-Russia peace initiative, dubbed Geneva 2, will involve all five permanent members of the UN Security Council, Fabius told France Inter radio, rebuffing a claim by Syrian president Bashar al-Assad that the Europeans had no role to play.

Fabius said Geneva 2 should aim to reach agreement on a ‘transition government for a united Syria that respects minorities’.

‘Mr Bashar al-Assad can say what he wants,’ Fabius said.

‘In Geneva 2, we want to find an accord between the representatives of the regime and the moderate opposition, so that it is not the terrorists, the extremists, Al-Qaeda who reap the benefits,’ he added.

Fabius said extremists only comprised about 20 percent of the opposition fighters.

BDST: 1952 HRS, SEPT 30, 2013
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