UN Syria talks to seek national ceasefire, not with IS and Nusra

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu had previously said that the PYD should attend the Syria talks alongside the representatives of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

According to reports U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he expected clarity within a day or two, and expressed support for the United Nations envoy Staffan de Mistura.

Diplomacy has repeatedly failed to resolve the conflict that has killed 250,000 people and forced millions from their homes, spawning a refugee crisis in neighboring states and Europe.

Over the weekend, Kerry traveled to Riyadh and pressed Saudi officials and some of the most prominent Syrian opposition leaders not to boycott the talks if the United Nations invites other rival opposition factions that are backed by Russian Federation and Egypt. Those factions are suspected by Syria’s armed rebels of being too close to Assad’s government to be trusted.

UN Syria envoy Staffan De Misturais trying to kickstart this week’s talks between the opposition and Syrian government in Geneva.

He denied he was pressuring the opposition to include either the country’s powerful Kurdish forces or politicians on good terms with Moscow. He says he expects the process to be an uphill battle, with a lot of posturing and many “walk-ins” and “walk-outs” by the participants.

Mr. Kerry added that he also told the opposition that “it’s up to the Syrians to decide what happens to Assad”.

The current political state of things in the region is a little more conducive to peace than previously, says Hassan Hassan, resident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy and co-author of ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror.

Meanwhile, a suicide bomber driving a fuel tank blew himself up on Monday at a checkpoint run by Islamist group Ahrar al-Sham in Syria’s northern city of Aleppo killing at least seven of its members, a monitoring group said. Regional heavyweight Turkey opposes inviting the Kurds.

The peace talks were originally due to start on Monday, but were postponed. With the addition of extremist militant groups, including the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) and al-Nusra Front, into the fighting, the stakes for the talks are indeed high.

The talks are slated to last six months, de Mistura said, with an opening round stretching for two or three weeks. “We are still supporting the opposition, politically, financially and militarily”.

However, on Sunday, Kerry adopted the Iranian stance which favors the formation of a national unity government in Syria that Assad can be part of, and relinquished the option of establishing a transitional governing body during Geneva talks, which necessarily entails the departure of Assad.

Now he wants discussions underway in Geneva in a matter of days.

January 25 was initially set as the target day for the first round of intra-Syrian talks, with January 27 later offered as a possible date of the first sit-down.

“We want to make sure that there is a substantial presence of women to advise me and make sure we are in the right position for the future of Syria”, he added.

The regime’s opponents are also demanding an end to bombardment of rebel-held areas as a sign of goodwill before talks start.