President Bashar Assad will not step down because he enjoys the support of a considerable portion of the Syrian people, Information Minister Omran az-Zuabi said on Saturday.

In an interview with Radio Sawa – an Arabic language radio station, funded by the United States government – he said that it was up to the Syrian people to decide their leader’s future.

The minister’s statement came amid reports that the newly-appointed UN and Arab League envoy on Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, is going to float his own settlement roadmap which provides, among other things, for President Assad to hand over power to a transitional authority.

Source: Voice of Russia