The UN estimates that almost 500,000 Syrians are under siege across the country, either by the government or various rebel and other militant groups.
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The group, named the High Negotiations Committee, says the delegation is not making any political negotiations, but only plans to talk to the United Nations after receiving reassurances about their demands.
Some commentators say the atmosphere for these talks is even worse than a previous round of failed negotiations in Geneva in 2014.
Damascus is keen to emphasise that the chief opposition negotiator is an official of the Saudi-backed Jaysh al-Islam group – something that many secular anti-Assad Syrians dislike.
He said he agreed with the HNC that it is important for the people in Syria to speak of an end to sieges, bombardment, and humanitarian access but argued the place to deal with these issues is here in Geneva. The group claimed responsibility for attacks a year ago that brought down a Russian airliner in Egypt in October with 224 people on board and killed 130 people in Paris in November.
The spokesperson said the opposition delegation will be heading to Geneva to test the intention of the Syrian government in reaching a peaceful settlement to end the war.
“Preserving principles after entering the political process whose rules are against us will turn into an impossible mission with the absence of assurances and few honest mediators”, said Labib al Nahhas, a prominent figure in Islamist Ahrar al Sham, which is represented on the HNC, on his Twitter account.
The Syrian opposition team is demanding that a governing body with full executive powers rules Syria during the transitional period.
Syria’s opposition has long insisted that Assad can have no role in any political transition and must resign at the beginning of any such process.
Haitham Manna, co-president of the Arab and Kurdish group known as the Syrian Democratic Council, told The Associated Press in the Swiss city of Lausanne that his group and their allies have named their own list of opposition participants, separate from the list named in Saudi Arabia, a move that is likely to anger the Saudi-backed opposition.
The talks began here Friday with a meeting between the United Nations envoy and the Syrian government delegation.
According to United Nations sources, al-Jaafari affirmed during the meeting that Syrians are committed to preserving Syria’s unity, independence, sovereignty, and the unity of its people, and that he pointed out that certain sides are sponsoring terrorist entities and refusing to classify them as worldwide terrorist organizations.
“There can not be any negotiations as long as the humanitarian issues have not been discussed or implemented”, he said.
The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said on Saturday that 16 people have starved to death in the government-besieged town of Madaya since aid convoys arrived this month and blamed the authorities for blocking medical supplies shipments.
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Jamil said they are working with the U.N.to resolve the crisis regarding the representation of the PYD. “The content of the negotiating framework that was decided in Vienna: cease-fire, unity government, constitution, elections – doesn’t address what the war is actually about, the character of the regime and especially Bashar al-Assad”, he said.
