Syria denies Interfax report in which Assad says he will not step down DAMASCUS, Syria, Jan. 20 (UPI) -- Syria said a Russian news report that quoted President Bashar Assad as saying his exit was "not up for discussion" at this week's peace talks was "inaccurate." The report by the non-governmental Interfax news agency was "inaccurate," Syria's official Syrian Arab News Agency said, quoting Assad's media office without elaborating. Syrian state television broadcast the same report. Russia is a key Assad ally. The two Syrian news outlets quoted the media office as saying Assad did not give an interview to the agency. Interfax did not say Assad gave an interview to the agency. It quoted him as telling a visiting delegation of Russian Parliament members and religious and social figures he and his regime were here to stay and saying the issue of his regime's removal would be a non-starter at the first talks between the regime and the opposition aimed at ending the country's nearly 3-year-old civil war. The talks are to begin Wednesday in Montreux, Switzerland, on Lake Geneva at the foot of the Alps. "If we wanted to give up, we would have done so at the very beginning," Interfax quoted Assad as saying. We are on guard for our country. This issue is not up for discussion. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who Sunday invited Iran to take part in the talks, said his expectation was the antagonists would go to the meeting, known as Geneva II, with the intention of creating a transitional government with full executive powers. The transitional government would run the country until elections could be held that likely wouldn't include Assad, who is backed by Iran. This was the objective of an international conference on the Syria conflict, known as Geneva I, held in Geneva, Switzerland, on the other side of the lake, in June 2012. The U.S. and Western allies earlier blocked Iran's participation in the talks because it hadn't agreed to the transitional government aim of Geneva II. But Ban said Sunday Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said his country shifted its position and agreed to those terms. The Western-backed Syrian National Coalition voted by a narrow margin Saturday to take part in the talks after facing heavy U.S. and British pressure. "We will go to Geneva II without compromising any principles of our revolution," coalition President Ahmed Jarba said. The talks will be the Assad regime's "funeral," he said. Syria told Ban last week its intention for the talks was fighting "terrorism." The regime uses that term to describe the armed opposition. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry hailed the opposition coalition's decision to participate in the talks as "a courageous vote in the interests of all the Syrian people who have suffered so horribly under the brutality of the Assad regime and a civil war without end." More than 100,000 people have been killed in the war, more than 2 million Syrians have fled their homes and more than 9 million are in need of humanitarian aid, the United Nations says.