Oppositions agree crisis roadmap

Syria's main domestic and exiled opposition groups yesterday said they had agreed a joint draft roadmap for the first time, calling for a transitional governing body and an end to the brutal conflict.

The draft document comes after representatives from the exiled Syrian National Coalition and the domestic National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change (NCCDC) met in Paris.

"This is the first time that we have an agreement between both organisations, the Coalition and the NCCDC," said Khalaf Dahowd, a member of the NCCDC's executive bureau.

Dahowd said representatives from the two opposition groups met in Paris from Sunday to Tuesday, at talks hosted by France but carried out without international involvement.

"It was Syrian-Syrian. There was no foreign power involved. No one was in our meetings, and that was very good," he told AFP.

He said the two sides had agreed a draft document based on UN Security Council resolutions on Syria and the so-called Geneva communique that emerged from peace talks in the Swiss city in 2012.

In a statement, the National Coalition said the document "specifies that the primary goal of negotiations with the Assad regime is to establish a civil, democratic, pluralistic system that ensures equal rights and duties for all Syrians."

A member of the NCCDC said the organisation will meet today to discuss the roadmap agreed in Paris.

The National Coalition is the key political representative of Syria's opposition and is officially recognised by much of the international community.