Kerry: Saudi-hosted Syria opposition talks ‘constructive’

The Syrian opposition groups met for two days of talks in the Saudi capital Riyadh to try to build a united front.

A peace plan agreed to last month set a January 1 deadline for the start of talks between the Assad government and opposition groups.

Al-Jubeir said he hopes the Syrian opposition can come up with a common vision for Syria during the meeting.

Syrian opposition and rebel groups agreed Thursday for the first time to unite behind a single body and a statement of principles that will form the basis for possible peace negotiations with the Syrian government next year.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking at a climate conference outside Paris on Thursday, said the talks in Riyadh have been “very constructive”.

Iran has openly criticized the decision by Saudi Arabia to hold the talks, saying they were created to harm the Vienna process.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin has sought to clarify Russian president Vladimir Putin’s remarks that Russia has been providing air support and weapons to the Western-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA).

The groups agreed to “democratic mechanism through a pluralistic regime that represents all sectors of the Syrian people” including women, Reuters reported.

“Al-Assad will leave with no doubt either by a political solution, which can be easier for all, or he will leave through a military solution because he is no longer wanted by the Syrian people”, al-Jubeir said in Riyadh. “I think everybody is moving in the direction that they want to rapidly get to a political process”, he said.

The Moscow meeting would build on the momentum of Vienna talks last month and an unprecedented two-day gathering this week in Riyadh among Syria’s main political and armed opposition groups.

The Syrian delegates underlined the need to safeguard the territorial integrity of their country and reiterated their conviction that Syria has to remain an all-inclusive, civic, and sovereign state based on a federal structure.

“There’s no point in meeting in NY or anywhere else without defining terrorist groups”, he said.

The Riyadh conference which opened Wednesday and its outcomes were not “truly” representative of the Syrian “revolutionary factions”, the group said.

While one influential faction reportedly pulled out in protest over the role being given to others that it claims are too close to the Assad regime, Mr. Kerry asserted from Washington that participants in the conference were in agreement on “how to advance a political settlement to end the conflict in Syria”.

And while opposition leaders have said the groups did agree on a framework for future talks, the withdrawal of Ahrar al-Sham highlights the lasting divisions among the opposition.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad speaks during a TV interview in Damascus, Syria in this still image taken from a video on November 29, 2015.