But representatives from other groups in attendance said most participants had agreed on the establishment of a “supreme council” made up of 32 opposition members and rebel faction officials who will later chose 15 final representatives to negotiate with the Assad regime on behalf of the opposition.
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Saudi Arabia is hosting the meeting to try to unite the Syrian opposition before potential talks with the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
The meeting comes amid global pressure on the opposition to unify their ranks and negotiate with al-Assad’s government to reach a political solution to the country’s conflict, now in its fifth year.
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”.
For Karim Bitar of the Institute for global and Strategic Affairs, “the apparent split in Ahrar al-Sham is a first sign that things could go wrong”.
The United States warned Friday that some problems still needed to be resolved in the opposition pact if UN-backed peace talks are to resume next week.
Iran is a crucial ally of Assad in Syria’s four-year-old civil war.
“The goal of the political settlement is to establish a civic state in which there is no place for Bashar al-Assad and pillars and symbols of his regime”, said the text of the Riyadh agreement carried by Saudi Arabia’s state news agency.
He added that while he was “working toward” the US meeting the arrangements were “not locked in yet”.
The group said in a statement that its withdrawal was an objection to the a major role given to the National Coordination Body for Democratic Change, a Damascus-based opposition group.
The provincial governor and a monitoring group said a vehicle bomb killed 16 people and wounded dozens, but IS said the attack was a auto bombing and a suicide bomber blowing himself up.
Some of the biggest groups controlling territory in Syria – al-Nusra Front, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and the Kurds – will not be included in next month’s talks. Numerous rebels have received support from outside powers to topple Assad.
Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Aabdollahian of Iran, which is closely allied with al-Assad, was quoted by local Iranian media as criticizing the Riyadh meeting.
Assad insisted a majority of Syrians backed his rule and that he would not step down, as Syrian rebel groups and many Western powers demand.
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The meeting would serve as a follow-up to the Vienna talks.
