The Syrian Opposition is awaiting clarification on key points from the United Nations before deciding whether to attend peace negotiations planned for Friday.
The Syrian Opposition is awaiting clarification on key points from the United Nations before deciding whether to attend peace negotiations planned for Friday.
The Syrian government has already agreed to join the talks that UN envoy Staffan de Mistura hopes to convene in an indirect format in Geneva with the aim of ending the five-year-old war that has killed 250,000 people.
But a Saudi-backed Opposition council that includes armed and political opponents of President Bashar al-Assad has yet to decide whether to go. It viewed its invitation “positively”, but said it had requested clarifications from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
The High Negotiations Committee (HNC) was meeting in Riyadh for a second day on Wednesday to decide its stance. “We sent the questions. We are awaiting the response,” said an Opposition source familiar with the proceedings in Riyadh.
The source said their most important question covered the implementation of steps outlined in a UN Security Council resolution that endorsed the peace process. These include the lifting of blockades on besieged areas, a halt to attacks on civilian areas, and a release of arbitrarily detained people.
Opposition officials had repeatedly said they could not agree to negotiations before such steps were taken by the government and its allies to show goodwill.
French foreign minister Laurent Fabius said he had spoken to HNC coordinator Riad Hijab and understood they would attend. “I spoke to Mr Hijab... he will respond to de Mistura and Ban Ki-moon this morning,” Mr Fabius told France Culture radio. “If I understand their position, they say yes to negotiations.”
Diplomacy has so far failed to resolve the conflict that has forced millions from their homes, spawning a refugee crisis in neighbouring states and Europe. Mr de Mistura is the third international envoy for Syria. His two predecessors — Kofi Annan and Lakhdar Brahimi — both quit.
The war has continued unabated as Mr de Mistura tries to launch the peace process endorsed by the Security Council in December.
Me de Mistura’s bid to convene the talks has already faced problems, including a dispute over who should represent the Opposition. While the Saudi-backed HNC includes powerful rebel factions fighting Mr Assad in western Syria, Russia has been demanding wider participation to include the Syrian Kurds.
But Mr de Mistura has not invited the Syrian Kurdish PYD party, which is affiliated to the Kurdish YPG militia that controls wide areas of northern and north-eastern Syria and has become an important partner in the US-led war on ISIS.
Turkey, a major sponsor of the rebellion which views the Syrian Kurdish PYD party as a terrorist group, had said it would boycott the talks if had been invited.
One prominent Syrian Opposition figure said he would boycott the talks unless the PYD was invited. “I’ll go with my friends or not (at all). There is no compromise in this question,” Haytham Manna said. Mr Manna is co-leader of an Opposition group called the Syrian Democratic Council, which includes the PYD and was formed in December in Kurdish-controlled Hasaka province.
Independent Syria dissident Jihad Makdissi said he would not attend the initial round of talks in order to help overcome differences over who should represent the Opposition.
