Syria flatly rejects proposed ‘transitional period’: minister

Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad rejected on Tuesday Western proposals of a “transitional period” during which President Bashar Assad would be removed from power, Reuters reported, citing a Syrian state television broadcast.

Speaking in Iran, Mekdad said his government had not received official notice about a meeting between authorities in Damascus and members of the Syrian opposition.

Mekdad said he was in Tehran to discuss an expanded government in Damascus.

"We are talking about a national dialogue in Syria and an expanded government and a constitutional process. We are not at all talking about what is called a transitional period," Mekdad said during the broadcast on Syrian state TV

Mekdad's comments are the first detailed remarks by the Syrian government since foreign powers convened in Vienna on Friday to discuss peaceful resolutions to the conflict.