The Syrian opposition protected and supported terrorist group Jabhat al-Nusra, which once seized the drinking water source for Damascus and cut off the drinking water supply for millions of people, al-Ja’afari told reporters at a break time of the talks.
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Earlier, Osama Abo Zayd, a rebel media representative, said the scope of the negotiations is limited to strengthening the current ceasefire arrangement.
But a long-term solution needs Western involvement, he said, because Turkey doesn’t have influence on all the rebel groups in Syria and can’t impose a deal on all of them.
Despite the talks, fighting has continued – Syrian government troops clashing with rebels near Damascus, and with the self-proclaimed Islamic State in Deir al-Zor in the east.
Representatives from the Syrian government and opposition groups plan to attend the talks and conduct face-to-face talks for the first time.
But it came to an abrupt end when the Syrian regime’s lead negotiator Bashar Jaafari stormed out from the meeting early, after it failed to establish common ground on the strengthening a ceasefire agreement brokered by Turkey and Russian Federation.
Hosted in the Kazakh capital Astana, the talks will see an opposition delegation composed exclusively of rebel groups negotiating with the regime of Bashar Al-Assad in an initiative sponsored by Turkey and Russian Federation.
More than 300,000 people have been killed and 11 million displaced in nearly six years of conflict.
“Turkey is violating Syrian sovereignty so there is no Syrian-Turkish dialogue”, he said, a reference to Turkish support for anti-Assad armed groups in the north of Syria.
Alexander Musienko, an adviser to Russia’s ambassador to Kazakhstan, cast the talks as a step in a long process. “I am confident that the Astana meeting will create the necessary conditions for all concerned parties to find a suitable solution to the Syrian crisis within the framework of the Geneva process under the United Nations auspices and will make a worthy contribution to promoting peace and stability in Syria”, Abdrakhmanov quoted the President’s greeting.
With both the regime and opposition forces accused of violating a ceasefire imposed since 30 December 2016, Iranian foreign minister Bahram Ghasemi has said discussions over a larger political settlement would have to wait.
The regime has made similar accusations about rebel violations.
“The talks are hard, tough and slow, but we need to give our negotiators time to fulfill their mission”, Musienko said, adding that such issues cannot be solved in one day.
Even so, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said prospects for the negotiations were improved by the presence of the militant groups at the Astana summit. George Krol, the United States ambassador to Kazakhstan, will be present as an observer.
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Russia, whose 2015 military intervention in Syria was crucial in shifting the tides of the war in favour of the government, and Turkey, a prominent backer of the opposition, were key forces in establishing the current ceasefire and bringing the opposing sides to Astana.
