Assad 'part of the solution' in Syria, says UN envoy

Any resolution to the fighting in Syria must involve President Bashar al-Assad, the United Nations envoy to Syria has said in the first such acknowledgement by the UN.

"President Assad is part of the solution," Staffan de Mistura told a joint press conference with Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz in Vienna on Feb. 13.

"I will continue to have very important discussions with him," de Mistura added, noting: "The only solution is a political solution." This was the first time a UN envoy on Syria has explicitly named Assad as part of a peaceful solution after nearly four years of fighting between government forces and rebels seeking his overthrow.

De Mistura's remarks drew condemnation from the key opposition National Coalition as well as from activists on the ground in Syria.

"I think De Mistura is fooling himself if he thinks that Assad is part of the solution," coalition member Samir Nashar told AFP by telephone from Istanbul. "Assad is the problem, not part of the solution."

Najib Ghadbian, the National Coalition's UN envoy, described the "brutality" of Assad's regime as the root cause of the conflict. He also warned the U.S.-led alliance fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) -- which has seized swathes of territory in both Syria and Iraq -- that its efforts would fail unless world powers get serious about a peace plan for Syria.

"We welcome the coalition but we need to have a comprehensive strategy to address the underlying cause: Assad and Assad's brutality," said Ghadbian.

De Mistura, who was in Damascus this week to meet Assad, is due to deliver a report on his mission to the UN Security Council on Feb. 17.

If no solution to the conflict is found, "the only one who...