Syrian Opposition Decides to Join Peace Talks as Geneva Meetings Kick Off
Syria's largest mainstream opposition group will attend U.N.-brokered talks in Geneva, a senior delegate told AFP on Friday after four days of discussions in Riyadh.
The delegate said the Saudi-backed High Negotiations Committee will send "about 30, 35 people" in all to Geneva, where talks got underway Friday.
Asaad al-Zoabi, head of the HNC delegation, told Sky News Arabia that the opposition had received the guarantees it sought for an end to bombardment of civilians, and aid access to besieged areas.
Those guarantees came from the United States and Saudi Arabia, Zoabi said, adding the delegation would arrive Saturday evening or Sunday morning.
In a tweet, however, the HNC said it would not be taking part in actual peace negotiations in the Swiss city.
"HNC confirms it is coming to #Genevaiii to participate in discussions with the @UN, not for negotiations," the tweet said.
HNC coordinator Riad Hijab was to issue a statement on the decision, which came after Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir met with them on Friday evening.
Fuad Aliko, who is due to represent the HNC if it formally takes part in the talks, said earlier Friday that only a small delegation would travel to the Swiss capital.
"A media delegation from the HNC has decided to go to Geneva," adding that it would be made up of three HNC members who also serve as the group's spokesmen.
But the other delegate said all of the Committee would travel to Switzerland.
Despite Western pressures for it to attend, the HNC had said it would not take part in Geneva without an agreement on relief reaching hundreds of thousands of people stuck in besieged towns.
It also wanted assurances from the international community that it will move to end regime attacks on civilians.
The HNC asked for "clarifications" after the U.N. issued invitations to other opposition figures.
The Committee insists that it is the sole permitted representative of Syria's opposition, despite objections from others.
The HNC was formed in December when the main Syrian political opposition and armed factions came together in Riyadh for an unprecedented bid at unity, after months of Saudi efforts.
The U.N. envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura on Friday met representatives of President Bashar Assad's regime in Geneva at the start of a scheduled six months of peace talks, an AFP reporter said.
Neither de Mistura nor Syria's U.N. ambassador Bashar al-Jaafari commented to reporters as they began discussions inside Geneva's Palais des Nations, the European U.N. headquarters.
The talks, backed by all the external powers embroiled in the war, are the biggest push yet to end a conflict that has killed more than 260,000 people and facilitated the meteoric rise of the extremist Islamic State (IS) group.
The highly complex conflict, which has been raging for almost five years, has also destabilized the already restive Middle East and drawn in not only regional powers like Saudi Arabia, Iran and Turkey but also the United States and Russia.
It has also forced millions of Syrians from their homes, many of them into neighboring states and further afield, causing a major political headache for the European Union which received more than one million migrants in 2015.
De Mistura issued an emotional video message on Thursday to Syrians both inside and outside the country saying that after previous failures, this new effort "cannot fail."
- 'Historic opportunity' -
The Geneva negotiations, if they happen properly, would not be face-to-face between the regime and its opponents. Instead they are "proximity talks" where go-betweens shuttle between the different participants.
They are part of an ambitious plan launched in Vienna in November by a raft of key actors including Russia, the United States, Gulf states, Iran and Turkey that foresees elections within 18 months.
The U.S. State Department said Thursday that the opposition's demands for participation in the talks were "legitimate" but called on it to take part in what it called "an historic opportunity."
"And we still believe they should do so without preconditions," spokesman Mark Toner said. "We believe these demands, while legitimate, shouldn't keep the talks from moving forward."
De Mistura has reportedly issued individual invitations to a list of figures opposed to the regime but who are thought to have closer ties to Moscow and have limited influence on the ground.
Randa Kassis, a member of that list, told AFP in Geneva on Friday that despite the uncertainty on who would attend, "something has to start. We have to think of the Syrian people."
The HNC and its Saudi and Turkish backers had also objected to the participation of Syrian Kurdish groups that have made key advances against IS in northern Syria in recent months.
Russia, however, which has helped the regime of President Assad make inroads against rebels with air strikes since September, says Kurdish involvement is essential.
- 'Inflexible' Assad -
France-based Middle East analyst Agnes Levallois said the opposition was growing increasingly frustrated that the question of Assad's fate, a key stumbling block in previous talks, was being put off.
"Assad is feeling stronger and stronger so is being inflexible," she said.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, whose Shiite country also backs Assad and is at daggers drawn with Sunni regional rival Saudi Arabia, said during a visit to Paris on Thursday that the process would take time.
"We hope that these talks will succeed as soon as possible. But I would be surprised if they succeed very quickly because in Syria there are groups who are at war with the central government and also amongst themselves," French media quoted him as saying.
"There is interference in the internal affairs of Syria," he added.
Source: Agence France Presse
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