Syria welcomes Geneva final communique

Syria welcomed Wednesday the final communique issued Saturday by the action group meeting on Syria, Syrian foreign ministry said. Syria welcomes the final communique, particularly the " essential points that talked about committing to Syria's sovereignty and independence... in addition to calling for halting the violence... and not militarize the crisis," the ministry said in a statement Wednesday. The Syrian ministry, however, said there are a few vague points in the statement that need clarification, stopping short of specifying those points. The ministry renewed the country's commitment to the six-point peace plan of UN-Arab League joint special envoy Kofi Annan. It noted that Syria is ready to embark on a national dialogue with all parties in order to reach a consensus on a program to end the crisis, emanating from the concept that the Syrian people make the decisions to build its future. An action group comprising of some world powers met Saturday in Geneva and agreed that a transitional government should be set up in Syria to end the 16-month-long conflict but did not stipulate the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad. The meeting marks the first consensus among super powers regarding the Syrian issue, despite under-the-hood differences that were leaked to the media such as how Russia managed to make the new approach more balanced after the United States had stipulated the ouster of Assad as a common ground for the Geneva talks.