Syria opposition agrees framework for peace talks

Separately, a listing of names the factions drew up in Riyadh showed armed rebel groups would compose the largest single group in a combined Syrian opposition body that would oversee talks with Assad’s government.

The talks yielded calls among opposition groups for a democratic, all-inclusive Syria, Reuters reported.

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.

Ahrar al-Sham, a hardcore amalgam of Wahhabi extremists and fanatical jihadis, withdrew from the anti-Assad confab because, according to the Washington Post: “some of its comments and recommendations have been disregarded at the meeting”.

A joint team of Syria’s political and armed opposition will meet the government next month for talks seeking a political solution to almost five years of conflict, the chairman of a Saudi-hosted opposition conference has revealed.

Moscow also took issue with the exclusion of Kurdish factions from the Saudi talks and the absence of the so-called “patriotic Syrian opposition” tolerated by the Damascus regime.

This signifies “a big change” on behalf of the opposition, Ibrahim Hamidi, the Syria editor of the Saudi owned al-Hayat newspaper, told the BBC.

Given its longstanding opposition to Assad, Saudi Arabia s hosting of the talks came under fire, with Tehran saying the meeting was in breach of declarations made in the worldwide peace talks.

Mohammed Baerakdar, a representative of the Islam Army, one of the armed brigades, said that foreign military support had not been enough to ensure victory so the group had to pursue a political solution.

The United States swiftly welcomed the Riyadh accord.

Syria’s disparate opposition groups say they are ready to have UN-sponsored negotiations with representatives from President Bashar al-Assad’s government – but insist he step down.

Rifts among Assad’s opponents have hindered four years of Western efforts to mobilise a stronger political and military challenge to the president throughout a conflict which has killed 250,000 people and driven millions of refugees overseas.

Syria’s moderate opposition factions have been weakened by divisions, allowing jihadist rebels such as Islamic State to establish a foothold in the country.

Even as the Riyadh conference was under way, the Saudi Foreign Minister, Adel al-Jubeir, repeated his country’s insistence that Assad “has two choices: leave through negotiations, which would be fastest and easiest, or he will be removed by force”.

But the opposition groups insisted that “Bashar al-Assad and his aides quit power with the start of the transition period” set out by world powers in Vienna last month.

That could be a codeword for the “soft partition” that some see as the only viable formula for Syria’s future, whereby the warring parties would essentially keep the bits they already have, within a loose federation – except Islamic State, which would then be turned on by all the others.

In addition to speaking with Lavrov and al-Jubeir, Kerry has also spoken with the foreign ministers of Italy, Jordan and Qatar, as well as the Saudi crown prince and China’s state councilor.