Syrian information minister Omran al-Zohbi said Tuesday that anyone expecting Bashar-al-Assad to hand over keys to Damascus at Geneva talks ’might as well not go’.

Syrian information minister Omran al-Zohbi said Tuesday that anyone expecting Bashar-al-Assad to hand over keys to Damascus at Geneva talks 'might as well not go'.

"Syria's Bashar al-Assad will remain president and lead any transition agreed upon in Geneva peace talks planned for next month," Zohbi stated during a press conference in Damascus.

"If anyone thinks we are going to Geneva 2 to hand the keys to Damascus over (to the opposition), then he might as well not go," the official stressed in remarks broadcast on TV channels.

"The decision rests with President Assad. He will lead the period of transition, if there is one. He is the leader of Syria... And he will remain the president of Syria."

Zohbi also said that Saudi Arabia, a strong backer of the opposition militiamen, should be excluded from the peace conference.

The gunmen battling Damascus government in a war that has claimed 126,000 lives since March 2011 have insisted he step down as part of any transition.

The two sides are set to meet in Geneva on January 22 in talks brokered by the UN-Arab league envoy Lakhdar Brahimi.

But the dispute over President Assad's role in the transition, and the endemic divisions among both the external opposition and the gunmen battling on the ground, have cast doubt over whether the two sides can even reach an agreement let alone implement it.

The National Coalition, an umbrella opposition group, has demanded the creation of a "transitional governing body" with "full executive powers" that excludes President Assad and his inner circle.

Syria was hit by a violent unrest since mid-March 2011, where the Syrian government accuses foreign actors, mainly the Saudi Arabia and Turkey, of orchestrating the conflict by supporting the militant opposition groups with arms and money.

Today hundreds of armed groups, including terrorist takfiri brigades affiliated with Al-Qaeda, are battling both the national army and each other, complicating any efforts to reach a political settlement.