"We said from the beginning that any decisions having to do with reform in Syria or any political doing is a local Syrian decision," he said in an interview with the Argentine newspaper Clarin, on Saturday.

"Neither the US nor any other state is allowed to intervene in it. This issue is dealt with in Syria," said the Syrian president whose government has been struggling with a western-backed bloody insurgency for more than two years.  

"That's why all possibilities are determined by the Syrian people themselves; you go to the elections, you nominate yourself, there's a possibility you win and a possibility you don't," Assad added, stressing on his previous proposals for stopping the war and solving the unrest through democratic means.

Assad said a decision on his political future must be made in elections, and not during such a conference, in response to planned US and Russian sponsored talks over the crisis in Syria.
US and its allies as well as the so called Syrian Free Army have pushed for Assad’s resignation as a precondition for any peace talks.

Assad, who enjoys popular support among Syrian people, has repeatedly said that he would not leave the country in turmoil and stands to support the people.

"The country is in a crisis and when a ship faces a storm, the captain does not flee," he said.
"The first thing he does is face the storm and guide the ship back to safety," Assad said adding that "I am not someone who flees from my responsibilities."

Syria has been facing a deadly western-backed insurgency which started as a protest but soon turned to be a cover for terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda and al-Nusra Front.