Saudi Foreign Minister says, Syria’s Assad must leave or be forced out

The opposition was willing to enter talks with Syrian government representatives and to accept a UN-supervised ceasefire, the statement said.

“We appreciate Saudi Arabia’s leadership in convening this broad and representative group… who agreed today on the structure of their negotiating body to represent them”, he said. The group said the militants operating inside Syria were under-represented at the meeting.

Monzer Akbik, a member of the National Coalition opposition bloc, said the meeting agreed to set up a 25-strong leadership group, including six coalition members, six from rebel factions, five from the NCB and eight independent figures.

Besides Russia’s slamming of the talks between political and armed opposition factions, the groups did end up calling for the resignation of Syrian President Bashar Assad, who has Russia’s support.

The opposition groups in Riyadh also called on the United Nations and worldwide community “to force the Syrian regime to implement goodwill measures before the negotiation process begins”.

Reports Thursday indicated that one of Syria’s main rebel groups, the Ahrar al-Sham Islamist group, had pulled out of talks.

John Kerry, the US Secretary of State, admitted that there were “kinks” to be dealt with but sounded chipper – even in the face of this apparent rejection from Damascus.

Sources inside the talks and Western diplomats said Ahrar al-Sham subsequently signed up to the opposition agreement, but this could not be immediately confirmed.

He said the new body would counteract claims by Russian Federation and Iran that the opposition was too scattered to uphold an agreement.

“These are representatives of all the opposition factions, political and military, and they are going to be the decision makers in terms of the political settlement”, said Akbik. Russian Federation launched air strikes in Syria 10 weeks ago, helping the Syrian army – backed by Iranian troops, Hezbollah fighters and allied militia – to contain rebel advances. But if talks get underway Moscow and Tehran will have to choose between continuing to prop up a discredited regime or working with the US and others to produce a legitimate one.

Obama has largely followed the first course of action, allowing Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and other Sunni “allies” to funnel US weapons to jihadists, including Ahrar al-Sham which fights alongside Al Qaeda’s Nusra Front as the two seek to transform Syria into a Islamic fundamentalist state, a goal shared by Al Qaeda’s spinoff (and now rival), the Islamic State.

Participants appeared to have reached a compromise by agreeing to hold talks without Assad’s immediate departure but insisting he step down later.

Assad told Spanish news agency EFE that Saudi Arabia, the US and some Western countries “want terrorist groups to join the negotiations table”.

More than 250,000 people have been killed in Syria’s conflict since it erupted in March 2011 with anti-government protests.

On December 9 Russian Defense Ministry’s official spokesman Igor Konashenkov said that Moscow will not open new air bases on the territory of Syria as there is no need in this.

Meanwhile, the conflict zone in Syria has grown further complicated since Russian Federation made a decision to expand its military presence in the country and deploy a cadre of warplanes, ostensibly to target terrorists like the Islamic State group but also striking rebel groups opposed to Assad.