Kerry: ‘Kinks’ in Syrian opposition framework

Al-Jubeir said the Riyadh convention aimed to put the opposition in a “stronger position” by agreeing on shared principles for future peace negotiations.

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.

Egypt’s Foreign Ministry has praised the outcome of Riyadh meeting, which grouped a vast range of Syria’s opposition groups.

More than 100 opposition representatives – ranging from secularist politicians tolerated by al-Assad’s regime, to hardline Islamist rebels – attended the Riyadh conference.

A powerful Syrian insurgent faction pulled out of an opposition conference Thursday ahead of proposed peace negotiations in protest over the role given to groups it said are close to the Syrian government.

Assad “has two choices: leave through negotiations, which would be fastest and easiest, or he will be removed by force, because the Syrian people refuse for this man to be allowed to stay in power”, Jubeir said.

Under the outlines of a plan agreed to by world powers in Vienna last month, representatives of the government and the opposition are supposed to meet in January for direct talks focused on securing a cease-fire and creating a transitional government to run Syria until new elections are held.

But it operates only in northern Syria, and is distrusted by other rebel groups, which shut it out of the Riyadh conference along with the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, fighting alongside other rebels against Assad in western Syria.

“But I think everybody is moving in the direction that they want to rapidly try to get to a political process and get it underway under the United Nations auspices”.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said there were “some tough issues to get over” even though there was progress in the talks.

Representatives of the Ahrar al-Sham militant group reportedly left the Riyadh meeting in the final hours.

To prepare for talks with the regime a joint body representing various factions will be established, followed by the selection of a negotiating team to join UN-mediated talks and implemention of a future ceasefire.

The formation of a unified opposition delegation is a major plank of the strategy for negotiations with president Bashar Assad’s regime on a political solution to the bloody civil war.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, in October.

Assad insisted a majority of Syrians backed his rule and that he would not step down, as Syrian rebel groups and many Western powers demand.

Internal opposition groups disagree, as do Assad’s key backers, Tehran and Moscow.

“The first step we should take in order to solve this problem is to stop the flood of terrorists, especially through Turkey to Syria and to Iraq, and of course we have to stop the flowing of money – Saudi money and other Wahhabi money and Qatari money – to those terrorists through Turkey”, Assad said.

But the nearly five-year-old conflict, in which more than 250,000 people have died, has also spawned unlikely alliances of convenience.

Although Russia and Iran have agreed to the Vienna statement calling for a political settlement, “they are escalating their military actions on the ground, ” Akbik said.