He said Monday’s talks must kick off an 18-month countdown to presidential and parliamentary elections in Syria, adding: “If not, the danger is that the deadline constantly gets pushed back”.
Advertisement
Speaking after breakfast with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, Kerry said Russian and American monitors were to meet in Amman and Geneva on Saturday to try to further reduce violence in Syria, and that he planned to request a call with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
The ceasefire agreement, brokered by the United States and Russian Federation, has been more widely respected than many expected, although fighting has continued on some important front lines, including near the Turkish border.
“The future of Syria is decided by the Syrian people”, the minister said, in response to Mistura’s remarks about an election in Syria within 18 months.
“I advise them that if this is their thinking, they shouldn’t come to the talks”, he said, addressing the opposition.
The opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC) has also confirmed its attendance and praised an agenda outlined by de Mistura focused on governance, a new constitution and elections.
A spokesperson for the opposition reacted angrily to Muallem’s comments which he said were “halting the talks before they start” .
Meanwhile, Syria’s foreign minister said yesterday that the government delegation to the shaky peace talks in Geneva will wait no more than 24 hours for the opposition delegation to arrive.
The last round of indirect talks collapsed on 3 February over a Russian-backed government offensive in Aleppo.
He said those in the opposition who have “illusions about seizing power in Geneva after they failed on the battlefield will fail”.
The biggest sticking point in the peace talks remains the fate of Assad, who Western and Gulf Arab governments say must go at the end of a transition period envisioned under a roadmap hammered out in Vienna previous year by major powers.
“There have been more than 350 violations during the 14 days and that shows the regime violated the truce, or didn’t commit to it”, he said.
Deliveries of humanitarian aid to hundreds of thousands of Syrians living under siege have increased, though there is nowhere near the continuous, unimpeded access that is required under global law and called for by U.N. Security Council resolutions.
Muallem said the negotiations would aim to form a “unity government” which would then appoint a committee to either write a new constitution or amend the current one.
In the latest violence, Al-Qaeda fighters and allied jihadists clashed with a rebel faction known as Division 13 overnight in northwestern Syria after storming its weapons depot, the group said.
Advertisement
Muallem said Saturday in Damascus the diplomats will leave for Geneva Sunday. Groups fighting the regime include not only rebels represented by the HNC, but also many others that are not part of the talks, including the terror group ISIS, which has seized parts of Syria and Iraq.
