DAMASCUS: President Bashar al-Assad insisted in a meeting on Wednesday (Thursday in Manila) with visiting United Nations (UN)-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi that Syrians alone will decide on the fate of an initiative for Geneva peace talks.

The encounter came a day after the Red Crescent evacuated hundreds of civilians from a besieged town near Damascus, in an operation that saw rare cooperation among the regime, its opponents and the international community.

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