UN envoy to Syria says Assad a key figure to ending bloodshed

The United Nations envoy to Syria has said the country's president has a key role to play in ending almost four years of war. This is the first time that any UN official has made such a statement.

The UN envoy, Staffan de Mistura made the statement during a joint press conference with Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz in Vienna on Friday.

"President [Bashar al-]Assad is part of the solution," de Mistura said. "I will continue to have very important discussions with him."

De Mistura added that "the only solution is a political solution."

This was the first time that any UN official has named the Syrian president, whose government and military forces have been accused by rights groups such as Human Rights Watch of major abuses, a being part of any solution to the conflict.

De Mistura added that if no solution to the conflict was found, "the only one who takes advantage of it is ISIS Daesh," referring to "Islamic State" jihadi group that has seized large swathes of Syria and Iraq by its Arabic name. The group is a "monster waiting for this conflict to take place in order to be able to take advantage," he added.

Opposition angered

The UN envoy's words sparked an angry response from opposition groups, including the Western-backed National Coalition.

"I think de Mistura is fooling himself if he thinks that Assad is part of the solution," Coalition member Samir Nashar told the AFP news agency by telephone from Istanbul. "If Assad was really interested in fighting Daesh, he would have sent his troops to Raqa rather than to Douma."

Raqa is the self-declared Islamic State capital in northern Syria, while Douma is a rebel-held town that is part of the Ghouta area, where the London-based Syrian Observatory of Human Rights claims more than 180 people, including around 30 children have been killed in a government bombing campaign over the past few weeks alone.

Later de Mistura, though, clarified his remarks in a telephone interview with a Reuters reporter, saying that Assad was "part of the solution for the reduction of the violence."

"I am not talking about a final solution," added. "That is something that only the Syrians, if you had asked me, would have to decide upon. The main point was he is part of the solution in reducing violence."

The Syrian conflict, which broke out in March 2011 after Assad sought to put down peaceful pro-democracy protests is believed to have killed more than 200,000 people and has displaced millions of others.