The Muslim Brotherhood has rejected an Iranian proposal to play a leading role in Syria’s government in exchange for President Bashar al-Assad staying in power, one of its leaders told Al-Hayat newspaper. Iranian intermediaries proposed that the Brotherhood “lead a government (in Syria) on condition we give up our demand to replace Bashar al-Assad,” the group’s deputy secretary, Mohammed Faruk Tayfur, told the London-based daily.
“It is the responsibility of the international community to protect civilians and establish security corridors,” as French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe stated, said Tayfur. “We must ask the Arab League to publish a report and transfer it to the (UN) Security Council,” added the Islamist leader, who was speaking from his office in Istanbul.
Tayfur, who is also a member of the Syrian National Council, an opposition umbrella group, dismissed reports the uprising against Assad’s regime is turning more radical. He accused the regime of “pushing (the revolt) towards militarisation and sectarianism.”
