Russia says Riyadh talks do not speak for entire Syrian opposition

A picture provided by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA)on December 10, 2015 shows Saudi King Salman bin Abdelaziz (R) listening to a member of the Syrian opposition during their meeting in Riyadh.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, whose country has been among Assad’s strongest backers, said last month that peace talks for Syria can not go ahead until all parties involved agree on which groups should be listed as terrorists and which are legitimate opposition.

Assad said that after backing the armed opposition, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and the West now want “the terrorist groups to join these negotiations”, adding they “cannot be opposition while it’s related and beholden to any other country, to a foreign country”.

The meeting, which kicked off Tuesday in Riyadh, brought together more than 100 opposition figures.

“The situation on the military level is a lot better than before, but again, the cost is rather high”, he said, mentioning foreign aid for rebels, which he referred to as “a lifeline for those terrorists” as being the cause.

The United States warned Friday that some problems remain to be resolved in a pact between Syrian opposition forces if UN-backed peace talks are to resume next week.

The Riyadh conference set up a 34-member committee to oversee peace talks.

Saudi Arabia’s talks between Syrian opposition groups excluded Kurds from the outset, despite their holding large tracts of territory in Syria.

“The meeting in Saudi Arabia appears to be very constructive at this point … but I think everybody is moving in the direction that they want to rapidly get to a political process”, Kerry said on the sidelines of climate talks in Paris. However a copy of the final statement, seen by Reuters, had been signed by the Ahrar al-Sham delegate. The statement said that body would select the negotiating team.

“Opposition, for everyone in this world, doesn’t mean militant”.

But the opposition demand for Assad to go “is of course unacceptable to the regime”, said Pierret.

He said it was up to the Syrian people to decide whether he should leave his post, but that he had the support of the “majority of the Syrians”.

Kerry welcomed the “positive outcome” of the Riyadh meeting. A senior Western diplomat said only about 20 percent of Russian strikes had been aimed at Islamic State.