UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura told press on Monday that intra-Syrian talks initially planned to start on Monday have been delayed until January 29.
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The Syrian opposition platform created in Saudi Arabia last month, who were meeting in Riyadh on Tuesday to decide whether to send their delegation to the talks, say the PYD should be part of the government delegation.
“How can you talk about political reforms in Syria if you ignore a leading Kurdish party”, he said.
“It was not comfortable for us for America – even in theory or partially – to adopt what came in the Iranian and Russian initiatives”, said Asaad Al Zoubi, who is expected to head the opposition’s negotiating team in any talks, in an interview with Arabic news channel Al Hadath.
According to various reports, the peace conference, if it takes place, will be the third since the war began and the first convened by de Mistura, after his two predecessors quit in apparent frustration after presiding over conferences in Geneva that yielded no significant progress.
The United Nations special envoy for Syria said Monday that he meant to start peace talks between the government and the opposition in Geneva on Friday, but acknowledged that every aspect of the process was rife with uncertainty.
Meanwhile, Turkey has said it will withdraw its support for the talks if the opposition bench includes a representative of a Syrian Kurdish group.
Syria has been engaged in civil war since March 2011, when Assad’s government began heavily cracking down on citizens protesting his rule.
Mr de Mistura said repeatedly the aim was not to fail as the 2014 Geneva negotiations had failed.
Rather, he plans to host what he called “proximity” talks, in which the factions will sit in different rooms at the U.N.’s headquarters in Geneva, and he will shuttle between them.
Staffan de Mistura told reporters he would be sending out invitations to the talks in Geneva on Tuesday. The talks, originally scheduled to begin Monday, will reportedly focus on a broad-based cease-fire, stopping the threat of the Islamic State group and providing humanitarian aid to the areas hardest hit by the almost five-year civil war.
Every day that passes without peace talks to resolve the conflict which has cost more than 250,000 Syrian lives so far, is a “day lost” he added, saying that the priorities for everyone, should be clear.
On his part, Khaled Khoja, president of Syrian National Coalition – the main internationally recognized opposition body – accused Kerry of taking a position similar to those of Russian Federation and Iran.
“We want to make sure that when and if we start, to start at least on the right foot”.
In turn, rebel groups have demanded that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad play absolutely no role during the transition to a new regime.
In November, IS claimed responsibility for the deadly November 13 Paris attacks that left 130 people dead and 350 others wounded.
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Participation by IS and the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front had been ruled out, he said, but discussions about other rebel groups were continuing. There will be a lot of posturing, we know that, a lot of walk-outs and walk-ins because a bomb has fallen or because someone has done an attack, and you will see that happening, he said.
