Ammon News - Agencies - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said the issue of him surrendering power is not up for discussion, in statements made in Damascus to

“If we wanted to give up, we would have done so at the very beginning. We are on guard for our country. This issue is not up for discussion,” he was reported as telling visiting Russian parliamentarians by Interfax news agency.

His comments came days ahead of an internationally sponsored peace conference on Syria and underscored differences between participants ahead of the Jan. 22 talks in Montreux, Switzerland.

Syria’s main political opposition group in exile agreed on Saturday to attend the talks and said three rebel fighting forces also wanted to take part.

The United Nations hopes the talks will bring about a political transition in the country, and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said last week that Syria’s future had no place for Assad.

Syria, however, said in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last week that its focus at the peace conference would be on fighting “terrorism.”