Syria to take time organising national dialogue, foreign minister says
DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syria will take its time to organise a landmark national dialogue conference to ensure that the preparations include all segments of Syrian society, Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani said on Tuesday, according to state media.
The conference is meant to bring together Syrians from across society to chart a new path for the nation after Islamist rebels ousted autocratic President Bashar al-Assad. Assad, whose family had ruled Syria for 54 years, fled to Russia.
"We will take our time with the national dialogue conference to have the opportunity to form an expanded preparatory committee that can accommodate the comprehensive representation of Syria from all segments and governorates," Shibani said.
Diplomats and visiting envoys had in recent days told Syria's new rulers it would be better not to rush the conference to improve its chances of success, rather than yield mixed results, two diplomats said.
The new government has not yet decided on a date for the conference, sources previously told Reuters, and several members of opposition groups have recently said that they had not received invitations.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday time was needed for Syria to pick itself up again and rebuild following Assad's overthrow, and that the damage to infrastructure from 13 years of civil war looked worse than anticipated.
Since Assad's fall on Dec. 8, Turkey has repeatedly said it would provide any help needed to help its neighbour rebuild, and has sent its foreign minister, intelligence chief, and an energy ministry delegation to discuss providing it with electricity.
Turkey shares a 911-km (565-mile) border with Syria and has carried out several cross-border incursions against Kurdish YPG militants it views as terrorists.
(This story has been refiled to add the word 'expanded' and fix the typo in the quote in paragraph 3)
(Reporting by Timour Azhari and Tuvan Gumrukcu; editing by Gareth Jones and Mark Heinrich)
