Syria: Al Qaeda Boss Urges Halt To Infighting

Al Qaeda's leader has called on rival Islamist groups in Syria to stop fighting between themselves and use their energies instead to fight against President Bashar al Assad's forces.

The call from Ayman al Zawahri came as activists claimed that fighting between the al Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and an array of other Islamist militant groups has killed more than 1,000 over the past three weeks, mostly fighters on both sides.

Al Zawahri says the internal fighting "has bloodied our hearts" and that it should stop immediately.

An image of the al Qaeda leader taken from a video posted on a website

In a five-minute audio message posted online, he called on groups in Syria to set up an Islamic court that would mediate and resolve their differences.

The message was posted as Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said elections would be the best way of ending the civil war in Syria and warned the West it could not impose a political solution on Tehran's ally.

Speaking as fledgling Syrian peace talks entered a second day in Switzerland, President Rouhani told the World Economic Forum that the Syrian people should be allowed to decide their own destiny.

President Rouhani in Davos - Iran was 'uninvited' to the Syria talks

"The best solution is to organise free and fair elections inside Syria," Mr Rouhani said at the forum in Davos.

"No outside party or power should decide for the Syrian people and Syria as a country."

Meanwhile, in talks on Syria in Geneva, UN mediator Lakhdar Brahimi was meeting Syria's warring sides behind closed doors on Thursday to gauge if they are willing to sit down face-to-face after the first day of a peace conference ended in bitter exchanges.

Walid al Muallem, Ahmed Jarba, John Kerry, Ban Ki-Moon are at the talks

Mr Brahimi is holding separate meetings with delegations from Mr Assad's regime and the opposition before full talks resume in Geneva on Friday.

The UN-sponsored conference - the biggest diplomatic effort yet to resolve Syria's devastating three-year civil war - opened in the Swiss town of Montreux on Wednesday with heated disagreements among the two sides and world powers.

Officials have said the talks could last between seven to 10 days and possibly resume after a break.

Expectations are low for a breakthrough at the conference, but diplomats believe that simply bringing the two sides together for the first time is a mark of some progress and could be an important first step.

:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202.

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