“They are the negotiators; so they will decide the future”.
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The Syrian conflict, which began in 2011, has killed an estimated 250,000 people and displaced a further 11 million.
Opposition groups have accused Russia of obstructing the talks by trying to impose conditions on which opposition groups can participate, and said the opposition will not take part in talks while Syrians die from blockades and Russian and government airstrikes. Meanwhile, the Pentagon said there had been no “change to the size of mission of the USA presence in Syria”.
Speaking to reporters in Laos on January 25, Kerry also said he agreed with the United Nations special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, that invitations for the talks should not be sent out until “all pieces are lined up”. De Mistura is scheduled to provide details of the peace process at a briefing Monday in the Swiss city.
Turkey, which is renewing its oppression of Kurds at home, is seeking to exclude the Syrian Kurds from the Geneva peace talks.
If the world has learned one thing from the war in Syria, it is that Assad and his regime will neither give up power nor share it as long as they have even the slightest hope of winning through brute force.
Muslat however said on Monday the talks with Kerry had been “positive” and that the opposition was “sticking by certain principles, not putting up obstacles”. The loss of Rabiaa came less than two weeks after government forces overran the town of Salma, another former rebel bastion in the mountains of Latakia.
“The small guerrilla operations have begun”. “Based on the new constitution, they must carry out new presidential and parliamentary elections in Syria”, Putin said in his interview with German newspaper Bild.
The Syrian military, its morale running high, is planning the next phase of its offensive in northern Syria.
Rabia had been controlled by different groups including al-Nusra – an al-Qaeda affiliate.
But Russia, which backs Assad’s government, has objected to the composition of the Saudi-backed group and has called for a broader opposition delegation.
Representatives of the government and opposition are set to meet in Geneva this week as part of a UN-endorsed 18-month peace plan.
We welcome strong opinions and criticism of our work, but we don’t want comments to become bogged down with discussions of our policies and we will moderate accordingly. They are not preconditions.
Aliko said Kerry applied “pressure” during the Saturday talks, though he stopped short of saying the USA diplomat had used threats.
“Unfortunately, it is not possible to sit and talk to anyone without the suffering being lifted first”.
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But a number of Arab news reports since then point to a hard encounter, with sources claiming that Kerry threatened a withdrawal of all USA support for the opposition if it did not go to Geneva for U.N.-brokered talks aimed at ending the five-year war.
