Opposition says Syrian peace talks unlikely to begin Friday

A Syrian opposition group has called on the United Nations to rethink its decision about who to invite for peace talks in Geneva and has sent U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura a counter-proposal.

The United States, which sympathises with the rebels and sees the talks as the start of a transition process that would see Assad step down, urged them to take part in the talks. But he insisted that “there is one simple rule, one party can not demand the make-up of another delegation”.

The UN said Thursday that there was no postponement of Syria peace talks due to start Friday in Switzerland, despite uncertainty around whether the main opposition umbrella group would attend.

“It was not comfortable for us for America…to adopt what came in the Iranian and Russian initiatives”, Zoubi said.

De Mistura has invited Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem and members of his delegation, as well as Riyad Hijab, the head of the opposition’s Higher Negotiating Committee, a Saudi-backed bloc that includes civilian and rebel groups.

“We believe that the HNC delegation and the various factions of the Syrian opposition have an historic opportunity to go to Geneva and propose serious practical ways to implement a ceasefire, humanitarian access and other confidence-building measures, and that they should do so without preconditions”, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Russia, Iran and Syrian the government say that is to be determined by the Syrian people.

“A number of the opposition has expressed the feeling that the U.S.is not acting as an honest broker and that they’ve lost both trust and faith in the ability of the United States to deliver on a political settlement in Syria”, said Andrew Bowen, a senior fellow at the Center for the National Interest who has contacts among Syrian opposition groups.

“Now we need to hear your voice to everyone coming to this conference saying this conference must be an opportunity not to be missed”.

For negotiations to succeed, the letter said the Security Council should do everything required to put a stop to anything that obstructs “the implementation of Security Council resolution 2254”.

The demands are also points set out in a U.N. Security Council resolution passed last month.

The rebels are now in a much more arduous position, which was apparent during a recent meeting of opposition groups in Saudi Arabia. “Everyone is still waiting”, he said.

The list of opposition groups invited to the talks on Friday are primarily groups backed by Saudi Arabia.

The Syrian Kurdish PYD party, which is affiliated to the Kurdish YPG militia, was however excluded from the invite list in line with the wishes of Turkey, a major sponsor of the rebellion which views the PYD as a terrorist group. It said those killed in the explosions, which took place in a mostly Alawite district, included 15 members of government forces and pro-government militiamen.

Hurriyet Daily News reported on Wednesday afternoon that Turkish opposition to PYD involvement might be slipping, with their boycott threat changing to protests about the Kurds getting slipped into the Geneva talks as “a last minute move is against the endeavors and negotiations conducted so far”, in the words of presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin.