Syria's Bashar al-Assad will remain president and lead any transition agreed upon in Geneva peace talks planned for next month, a government minister insisted on Wednesday.
"If anyone thinks we are going to Geneva II to hand the keys to Damascus over (to the opposition), they might as well not go," Information Minister Omran al-Zohbi said in remarks carried by the official SANA news agency.
"The decision rests with President Assad. He will lead the period of transition, if there is one. He is the leader of Syria... And he will remain the president of Syria."
Zohbi also said that Saudi Arabia, one of the main backers of the rebels, should be excluded from the peace conference, accusing it of arming and training "terrorists" fighting in Syria.
The rebels battling Assad's government in a war that has claimed more than 110,000 lives since March 2011 have insisted he step down as part of any transition.