Syrian opposition agrees on talks with Assad regime

Kerry welcomed the “positive outcome” of the Riyadh meeting.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said there were “some tough issues to get over” even though there was progress in the talks.

Monzer Akbik, a member of the opposition coalition, said he doubted that the negotiations would occur, at least not as early as January.

Separately, a listing of names the factions drew up in Riyadh showed armed rebel groups would compose the largest single group in a combined Syrian opposition body that would oversee talks with Assad’s government.

But Reuters news agency said the group had signed the copy of the statement at the end of the two-day talks.

Moscow is a close ally of President Bashar al-Assad but also, with Washington, a key sponsor of the UN-led effort to negotiate a ceasefire in Syria’s civil war.

“As I said before, Bashar Assad has two solutions: Leave through negotiations, which is easier and better for all”.

The committee will have 33 members, a third of them representing armed factions.

The meeting in Riyadh comes after world leaders demanded the opposition and the regime begin negotiating again by the end of the year.

The measures include the ending of regime sieges on towns and districts to allow the entry of humanitarian aid, a halt to executions, the release of political detainees and the creation of conditions to allow for the return of refugees.

Shiite Iran, which sees the Syrian strongman as the cornerstone of any future settlement, has propped up Mr. Assad with billions of dollars and thousands of its own fighters as well as proxy militias from such neighboring countries as Lebanon and Iraq.

Participants appeared to have reached a compromise by agreeing to hold talks without Assad’s immediate departure but insisting he step down later.

Samih Shubayb in the Palestinian paper Al-Ayyam believes the “mosaic of groups” are uniting for the “post-Islamic-State era in Syria”.

Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Aabdollahian of Iran, which is closely allied with al-Assad, was quoted by local Iranian media as criticizing the Riyadh meeting. “There’s a big difference between militants, terrorists and opposition”, Assad said.

“Only the people of Syria can decide the future of their country”, he added.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir visited the participants on Wednesday and is said to have made a second visit just before the final declaration was announced on Thursday.

Saudi-funded Al-Arabiya says Syrian and Russian forces are carrying out a “military escalation” against non-Islamist opposition strongholds in the north – which the Al-Alam Arabic satellite channel of Syria’s Iranian ally prefers to call “liberation”.