Philip Hammond hails ‘important’ Syria peace process milestone

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”.

Monzer Akbik, a member of the National Coalition opposition bloc, said the meeting agreed to set up a 25-strong leadership group, including six coalition members, six from rebel factions, five from the NCB and eight independent figures.

“The UK will continue to play our full part in the International Syria Support Group (ISSG) established to ensure a Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political transition based on the Geneva communique of 2012, and to an ambitious but clear timetable”.

Syria’s moderate opposition factions have been weakened by divisions, allowing jihadist rebels, mainly Islamic State, to establish a foothold in the country.

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows Syrian President Bashar Assad, speaks during an interview with the Spanish news agency EFE, in Damascus, Syria, Friday, Dec. 11, 2015.

Russian Federation has said its air force has hit terrorist targets identified by Syrian opposition forces, but Western states striking ISIS forces have said Russian Federation has mostly targeted other rebel groups.

The opposition groups called on the United Nations and global community to force the regime to take “goodwill measures” before negotiations can begin.

The statement comes after two-day talks held in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia.

Syrian President Bashar Assad says his government will not negotiate with armed groups, calling them “terrorists”.

“We are ready today to start the negotiations with the opposition”.

The meeting came amid escalating conflict in Syria and accelerated diplomacy to find a political solution to the war.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says there are “kinks” in a framework agreed to by rival Syrian opposition groups for peace talks that must be worked. “I think everybody is moving in the direction that they want to rapidly get to a political process”, he said.

“So we’ve made progress, but we have some tough issues still to get over”.

Among those participating in the meetings in Riyadh are hard-line Saudi-backed groups such as Jaysh al-Islam and Ahrar al-Sham, who had long rejected any negotiations with Assad’s government while he remained in power.

The Riyadh meeting was meant to bring as ” broad a cross-section of Syrian opposition groups as possible” to the table, according to Adel Al-Jubeir, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister.

Not all of the armed factions attended the talks, with the Islamic State group and the Al-Qaeda affiliated Al-Nusra Front excluded.