Syrian official: State will make no concessions during talks

A joint statement signed by 45 opposition and rebel groups said that while they support a political process, they hold the Syrian government and its Russian backers responsible for any failure in peace talks due to their “ongoing crimes”.

Syrian peace talks will go ahead in Geneva, US Secretary of State John Kerry has insisted, but with just days to go, rival camps are bickering about who should be invited to take part.

The cautious, step-by-step approach points to the delicate task faced by U.N. Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, who is eager to make concrete progress toward ending the almost five-year-old war that has claimed more than 250,000 lives, displaced millions and provided an opening to the extremist Islamic State group to seize land. “The form of the talks does not concern us, but the conditions must be appropriate for the negotiations”, he told Reuters.

Also on Sunday, the government newspaper, Tishrin, said in an editorial that the Geneva talks should only bring in negotiators with genuine plans for rebuilding Syria, and not “representatives for the agendas terrorist-supporting countries that seek a seat for terrorism at the dialogue table”.

Syrian government forces edged closer to a key rebel town in the coastal province of Latakia on Friday, backed by Russian air strikes and military advisers, a monitor said.

Much hope was pinned on these much delayed talks, but the fact that they would be conducted indirectly, as confirmed by US Secretary of State John Kerry recently, casts serious doubts about their usefulness and outcome.

Russian Federation has objected to the inclusion of a radical Islamist militia – Army of Islam – in the Saudi-sponsored opposition delegation endorsed by the U.S. It has demanded that Moscow-friendly figures join the negotiations, including Qadri Jamil, a former Syrian deputy prime minister, as well as Saleh Muslim, co-head of the Syrian Kurdish group PYD, Kommersant newspaper reported on Saturday.

“The Syrian opposition is the party which decides who represents it in the talks”, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said Tuesday. Assad, whose family has governed Syria for more than four decades, has said he will only step down if voted out.

And a senior French diplomat said there must be a credible framework in place before the talks can take place and, if more time was needed, the United Nations should consider it. Raids believed to be either Russian or Syrian killed 30 civilians near Deir al-Zor city, the Observatory said. “Their mentality is the same as the Nusra Front and Daesh (Islamic State)”, he said of Jaysh al-Islam.