Talks to end five years of war in Syria gathered some momentum as the main opposition group said it would attend negotiations, lifting its threat to boycott the peace process.
The Saudi Arabian-backed High Negotiating Committee (HNC), which had demanded that air strikes by Russia and government forces against insurgents end before it took part, yesterday said in an e-mailed statement that it would travel to the Swiss city of Geneva to participate in the peace talks, although insisted it would not be negotiating.
Khawla Mattar, spokeswoman for UN special envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, confirmed the HNC would take part in the talks and their delegation was expected to arrive in Geneva yesterday.
Photo: Reuters
The US and France welcomed the opposition’s decision. The Syrian war, which has killed 250,000 people, has left Europe facing an escalated threat from terrorist attacks and a growing refugee problem.
De Mistura, who met a delegation sent by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Friday, said he was confident the opposition would participate.
Among their demands were also prisoner releases and the lifting of sieges of Syrian towns, the UN envoy said.
“My feeling is that their internal discussion is leaning toward accepting our suggestion,” de Mistura told reporters on Friday.
“The best way to actually discuss the implementation of important signals toward the population of Syria is to come to Geneva,” he added.
The peace efforts to end the conflict come as al-Assad’s forces, backed by Russian air power, are making progress against Islamic State militants, as well as the rebel forces supported by Turkey, Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf nations.
The UN-sponsored negotiations, which are envisaged as stretching over several months, are being held in a so-called proximity format.
This would involve de Mistura shuttling between the government delegation and two opposition factions — a second opposition group made up of Moscow-friendly figures is already in Geneva.
The US on Friday welcomed the HNC’s decision to attend the negotiations, calling on both sides to achieve results “in the days ahead,” US Secretary of State John Kerry said in an e-mailed statement.
The conflict has forced millions to flee their homes, provoking the worst refugee crisis in Europe since World War II.
It has also helped the rise of Islamic State, a militant organization with a stronghold in Syria and Iraq that has spread into regional neighbors including Yemen, Egypt, Libya and Afghanistan, and poses a growing threat further afield.
The group claimed responsibility for attacks last year that brought down a Russian airliner in Egypt in October with 224 people on board and killed 130 people in Paris in November.
The US and Russia, which have taken the lead in promoting the Syrian peace process, secured an agreement among major powers in November for a timetable that would see a power-sharing government by the middle of this year.
Elections would follow a year later after changes to the constitution. The warring sides must also agree to a nationwide ceasefire, except for offensives that target the Islamic State and the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front.
It will be an achievement if the talks do actually get under way with the government and opposition, although with neither side willing to make concessions, “that does not mean its prospects of success are very high,” Stockholm International Peace Research Institute director Dan Smith said.
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