BEIRUT: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's re-election this week proves that any solution to the country's conflict "begins and ends" with the embattled leader, Lebanon's Hezbollah chief said on Friday.
"The elections proved that a political solution in Syria begins and ends with President Bashar al-Assad," Hassan Nasrallah, a key ally of Assad's regime, said in a televised address.
Assad won a new seven-year term in the country's first multi-candidate presidential vote on Tuesday, scooping nearly 90 percent in an election dismissed by the opposition and its international backers as a "farce."
Nasrallah dismissed the opposition key demand of Assad's departure from office as a condition for any peace agreement.
"There is a president who has been elected by millions for a new seven-year term," he said.
"Those who want to work for a political solution must talk to him, negotiate with him and reach a solution with him."
Nasrallah, who has sent Hezbollah fighters to Syria to battle alongside Assad's regime, called for an end to bloodshed and new negotiations.
"We call on combatants to move towards reconciliation and dialogue, looking for political exits to stop the bloodshed," he said.
"This fighting will only increase destruction in your country and add to the bloodshed," he said, addressing the opposition.
"Everyone should recognise and acknowledge that war in Syria will not lead to others taking control of it," he said, ruling out regime change through conflict.
The conflict began in March 2011 with peaceful protests against Assad's rule and spiralled into a bloody war that has killed more than 162,000 people.
Nasrallah said Assad's re-election was a "political and popular declaration of the failure of war," and said any solution required an "end to the support of militants groups in Syria."
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