"We think the best scenario is for Mr Assad to remain president of the republic until the summer of 2014," said Aladin Borujerdi, head of parliament's national security and foreign affairs commission on Monday.

"After that, free elections will be held and the Syrian people can express themselves and decide on their future," he told a Damascus press conference after a meeting with Assad.

He criticized certain neighboring countries who supported the armed insurgency for "seeking to deepen dissent and the crisis" in Syria. Such countries, he said, "must know that the crisis would spread to their own countries sooner or later and their behavior will be remaining in minds of Syrians and history forever".

He said that the Zionist regime is currently leading a war in Syria and without involving itself in direct clashes it is collaborating with the US and its allies by encouraging civil war in Syria. He said Israel armed the terrorists and provided information to them for destroying infrastructures in sensitive places.

Slamming the US claims of supporting human rights and fighting terrorism, he said Washington’s performance has lost many lives in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria and Palestine. He said the US government has in practice proved that it is working to spread terrorism worldwide and thus has caused universal hatred.

Stressing Iran’s support for the political plan proposed by President al-Assad, he said Tehran believed that national dialogue and understanding among all social groups is the only way out of present crisis in Syria.