Syria's deputy foreign minister said Monday his country wasn't consulted about the issue of sending a UN envoy to discuss the crisis in Syria, stressing that it's "unacceptable" to impose decisions on the country.

The United Nations and the Arab League appointed former UN head Kofi Annan as a joint envoy to handle the months-long deadly Syrian crisis.

In an exclusive interview with Xinhua, Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said the Syrian government is handling the issue from a strategic perspective and a concept of sovereignty.

Mekdad said Syria has sympathy for the French and U.S. journalists that were, according to Mekdad, killed and wounded by those armed gangs, which would convince the western public opinion of the need to stop providing funds and weapons to those groups.

He indicated that the government has sent a delegation from the Syrian Red Crescent to bring in the two bodies of the deceased journalists and other wounded from the flashpoint Baba Amr neighborhood in the central province of Homs.

He, however, also blamed those journalists for crossing into Syrian territories illegally, adding that foreign journalists and some armed gangs "are trying to impose their own dictates on us and place complicated conditions on how to go out of that area."

The International Red Cross said that its efforts to gain access to the area and bring out some 27 people, reached a deadlock.

"The problem is theirs and we have no problems," Mekdad said, adding that the western countries that have funded those armed groups have given "instructions to their agents of armed gangs not to go backward."

He reiterated what the Syrian government has been claiming since the start of unrest in the country in mid March 2011 about the presence of armed terrorist groups in Syria backed by regional and international powers.

"There are plans by superpowers and the West in general to support those gunmen to disrupt the achievements of the Syrian people and to change Syria's political path," he said.

Mekdad said he believes the conditions in Syria are improving, adding that the crackdown in Homs is a "chance to restore security and tranquility to this city via shunning armed gangs that target civilians and hinder the arrival of food stuff provided for them."

He said the draft constitution that was put for a public referendum on Sunday, is not a "divine document," raising prospects that the next parliament could work to improve its articles.

Yet, he stressed that the constitution has met the aspirations of the Syrian people and has opened a new page in Syria's history.

The Syrian Interior Minister Mohammad Chaar announced Monday that as many as 89.4 percent voters supported the new draft constitution.

Mekdad praised the wide-range popular participation in the voting on the referendum, and also expressed sadness over the attacks carried out by armed groups on voting booths in a number of Syrian cities.

"The attacks reflect the barbarism of those groups and their rejection of democracy or any progress in the political and economic life in Syria," he said.

Mekdad vehemently lambasted the recent "Friends of Syria" meeting in Tunisia which gathered representatives from the West, U. S., and Arab countries as well as some members of the Syrian opposition groups, and concluded with a number of decisions, mainly to arm the Syrian opposition.

"The armament of the opposition is a crime and it's totally rejected," Mekdad said, adding that the meeting gathered Syria's foes not friends.

"When antagonists meet, we could imagine what kind of decisions would come out... therefore, we paid no attention to this conference that has come basically to increase pressures on Syria, step up the misleading media campaign, distort facts and lay foundations for foreign interference in Syria's internal affairs," he said.

"We don't want to see the Syrian people suffer under the pretext of a false democracy which they are talking about, while they themselves are farthest from democracy," he said.

Mekdad expressed confidence that Syria's future is based on the continuation of the process of reforms and a national dialogue.

He urged some opposition groups "that did not carry weapons" to heed the government's call and join national dialogue to "build Syria and to embark on a new stage."

Mekdad stressed that among the basic steps that would be taken by the government during the next few days is the formation of a broad government that would combine basic and effective spectra of the Syrian society.

He said parliamentary elections would be held in June, stressing that the elections would take Syria to a new era of justice, equality and democracy.

"We are moving within a definite timetable to achieve all reforms promised by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad," he said.