WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — On Thursday, the Syrian opposition’s Moscow platform put forward a proposed transitional government arrangement to appoint five vice presidents as deputies to President Bashar Assad.
The proposal allegedly received a positive response from UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura. The High Negotiations Committee, the main opposition delegation, ruled out the proposal, saying that President Bashar Assad must leave.
"Putting Syria back together is going to be an incredibly difficult challenge and it will require a lot of compromise and a lot of creativity… and power-sharing if it is to be restored to what it once was, a unitary and secular country," Coons said.
Coons, who serves on the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, explained that he had not heard of the opposition’s proposal, but commented that the structure of five vice presidents could be "interesting."
Coons has been a fierce critic of Assad’s government, which he has referred to as a "murderous regime."
At the March Syrian proximity talks, the negotiating sides reaffirmed their commitment under UN Security Council Resolution 2254 to produce a draft constitution, including a framework for a government transition, by August of this year.
On Thursday, UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura announced that the Intra-Syrian talks will not resume in the next two to three weeks. The last round of talks wrapped up on April 27, amid a fracturing ceasefire in the country.
