Assad 'part of the solution' in Syria: UN envoy

UN Syria’s envoy says Bashar al-Assad must have role in Syria's future to ensure peace.
Any resolution to the fighting in Syria must involve President Bashar al-Assad, the United Nations envoy to Syria has said in the first such acknowledgement by the UN.
"President Assad is part of the solution," Staffan de Mistura told a joint press conference with Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz in Vienna on Friday.
"I will continue to have very important discussions with him," de Mistura added, noting: "The only solution is a political solution."
This was the first time a UN envoy on Syria has explicitly named Assad as part of a peaceful solution after nearly four years of fighting between government forces and terrorist group like ISIS, Nusra Front and other armed rebels seeking Syria’s government overthrow.