Syrian opposition groups on Thursday agreed to discourse with the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a potentially momentous step toward peace during a years-long civil war that has devastated the region.
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A meeting of Syrian rebel groups in Saudi Arabia has made progress, boosting the chances that peace talks can resume next week, US Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday.
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.
The cease-fire, in the Waer district of Homs, allowed more than 700 people to leave a rebel-held area that the government has surrounded, but also allowed many rebels to remain and keep their weapons until the government releases detainees, according to Yacoub El Hillo, the top United Nations humanitarian official in Syria.
Behind them are nine members of the exiled political opposition, six from Syria’s internal, mainly Damascus-based opposition and eight independents.
Syria’s Al-Qaeda affiliate rejected Saturday the outcome of an opposition summit that agreed to negotiate with President Bashar al-Assad, and Russian Federation denounced the gathering in Saudi Arabia as unrepresentative.
Suhair Atassi, a member of the National Coalition, the main opposition grouping, said the agreement represented “a unified vision for the settlement process”.
Saudi Arabia is a key backer of Sunni opposition blocs pushing for Assad’s ouster.
Assad said organizations considered to be “terrorist around the world, like ISIS (Islamic State) or al-Nusra”, have hundreds of millions of dollars and “a almost full army like any other state”, a situation he said was only possible due to the direct support of countries like Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. “I think everybody is moving in the direction that they want to rapidly get to a political process”.
The walkout pointed to how deeply contentious the issue of negotiating with the regime is, especially for the armed groups that have been fighting for four years to topple Assad.
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said groups linked to IS were attending.
The Riyadh conference “took place because there was enormous pressure on the opposition to unite before talks that will happen because they’ve been jointly decided by the United States and Russia”, said Syria specialist Thomas Pierret from the University of Edinburgh.
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Shiite Iran, which sees the Syrian strongman as the cornerstone of any future settlement, has propped up Mr. Assad with billions of dollars and thousands of its own fighters as well as proxy militias from such neighboring countries as Lebanon and Iraq. The meeting came amid escalating conflict in Syria and accelerated diplomacy to find a political solution to the war.
