Syrian opposition says awaiting UN response before decision on attending talks

“Turkey has a clear stance”, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Tuesday.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, meanwhile, has called for the participation of Kurds in the peace talks and insisted that the meeting would not be successful if Kurdish representatives are not invited.

Khawla Mattar, a spokeswoman for the UN’s Syria envoy, Staffan de Mistura, said there was “no plan to invite” non-Syrians in response to a question about the possible inclusion of observer delegations from Turkey, Russia, the United States or France.

In the chaotic run-up to the talks, the warring sides and their worldwide backers have bickered over who should be present and what should be discussed, with some threatening to boycott if their conditions are not met.

“He will respond to de Mistura and [UN Secretary General] Ban Ki-moon this morning”, Fabius said.

Syrian rebel groups have previously said they hold the Syrian government and Russian Federation responsible for any failure of talks.

The coalition’s Vice-president Hisham Marwa stressed that “Russian allegations that there are “terrorists” in the opposition’s negotiating delegation aim to discredit the delegation and disrupt the political process”.

“We believe it should seize this opportunity to test the regime’s willingness and intentions and expose before the entire world which parties are serious about a potential peaceful political transition in Syria and which are not”, State Department Spokesman Mark Toner said.

The Saudi-backed committee is headed by former prime minister Riyad Hijab, who defected to the opposition in 2012.

Preparations for the talks have been beset by problems, including a dispute over who should represent the opposition.

These developments come as Russian Federation continues its horrific aerial carnage in Syria.

The HNC excludes Syria’s most powerful Kurdish organisation, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), and a range of other opposition figures, seen as close to the Damascus regime and its ally, Russia.

The main opposition representation at Geneva may be the Saudi-backed High Negotiations Committee (HNC), although it had not confirmed its attendance 24 hours before the talks were due to start. De Mistura said implementation of the resolution was not up to him but to the states that signed it, the source added.

Kerry said any disagreements arising in the Geneva talks would be addressed by another meeting of the 20-odd member International Syria Support Group that is tentatively scheduled for February 11.

“I am on my way to Geneva after receiving an invitation” to the talks that are scheduled to begin on Friday, he said. The approach points to the enormous complexities that lie ahead.

But invitations have also gone out to several opposition figures who are not in the HNC, which has said it should be the sole opposition delegation at the talks.

The stakeholders include a number of countries at odds with one another, including Saudi Arabia, which is helping coordinate the Syrian opposition, and Iran. “The consensus among the activists is that President Obama has set up peace talks in order to give the illusion that this administration is seeking a resolution in Syria”, Rahmani says.

Iran, another main backer of Assad, is among the 17 nations that support the process, but it has not voiced much opinion on the formation of the delegations.