The UN envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, said on Thursday that a transitional government should be granted full executive powers until new elections can be held, reports The New York Times.

The envoy did not elaborate who would serve in such a government, and he offered no details about the role Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, would play — if any — during the transitional period. But he said that ‘the transitional government must have all the powers of the state.

Over the past month the special envoy has consulted extensively with the United States and Russia in hopes of fulfilling an accord reached in Geneva this summer calling for dialogue between Syria’s government and the opposition.

He said that the Syrian people seek genuine change and emphasized the importance of preserving state institutions and warned that military intervention would “lead to the destruction of the Syrian state.

Syrian opposition figures have suggested that Mr. Brahimi presented Mr. Assad with offers to either cede some of his authority or leave the country. But Russian officials, who had recently met with Syrian government delegation in Moscow, said there was and is no such specific plan under discussion that would include a transitional government.

Among the widely discussed sticking points for a possible transition plan is what role, if any, Mr. Assad and his allies would play in the process. Among the options being floated this week are an arrangement that would allow him to remain in office for most of or the rest of his presidential term, which ends in 2014, but transfer much of his authority to a transitional body. A separate question is whether the agreement would allow him to run for re-election in 2014.