Syria Requests Opposition Delegation List before Peace Talks
Syria's foreign minister on Saturday said his government was still waiting to receive the names of opposition figures attending peace talks later this month in Geneva, state news reported.
After meeting with United Nations peace envoy Staffan de Mistura in Damascus, Walid Muallem confirmed his government would take part in negotiations beginning January 25.
The talks are part of an ambitious 18-month plan backed by the U.N. Security Council to end Syria's nearly five-year war.
But Muallem said it was "necessary" that his government see the names of opposition groups that would attend, as well as a list prepared by Jordan of which armed factions would be considered "terrorist organisations."
Syrian government figures have requested these lists in the past as apparent preconditions for talks.
The embattled regime refers to all its opponents as "terrorists."
"The efforts to find a political solution and the recent decisions of the U.N. Security Council in this regard are linked with the credibility of counter-terrorism efforts," Muallem said according to the SANA news agency.
De Mistura's brief trip to Damascus is part of a string of regional visits in the buildup to the talks. The envoy was in Riyadh earlier this week and will head next to Tehran.
Muallem pledged that Syria would "continue cooperating with the special envoy... to fight terrorism and move forward with dialogue among Syrians."
On Friday, more than 20 rebel groups published a statement denouncing the international community for pressuring the opposition to "make concessions" in the peace process, accusing world powers of being "complicit" in the suffering of Syrians.
More than 260,000 people have died since Syria's conflict erupted in March 2011, and previous efforts to find a political solution to the war have failed.
09 January 2016, 18:05
36
Mualem needs the names so that the Assad regime does his usual Moukhabarat work and either capture/assassinate/bomb any relatives to those names. The way this regime worked for more than 40yrs is to assassinate opposition figures and eliminate Ghazi Kan3an when caught right handed the mafia way. Same applied for all March 14 politicians figures that were assisinated in Lebanon under the orders of Ghazi and executed by Hizbollah.
10 January 2016, 03:28
13
Ermmm... Southern, the first Syrian people who wanted to "negotiate" with Baschar were the parents of the teenagers that Baschar's soldiers murdered for having sprayed anti-Asad graffiti in Daraa. Baschar didn't want to negotiate with them and so he ordered his soldiers to spray them with bullets. It's not that the Syrian autocracy doesn't want to negotiate with terrorists; it's that until they have been punched in the face they didn't want to negotiate with anybody at all. Quit defending mass-murderers. 3ayb!
10 January 2016, 03:39
13
If you want to be taken seriously as being non-sectarian, quit lopping all Shiites together like if being born Shiite automatically deprives you of a brain and makes you a supporter of Hizb.
I remind you that not all Shiites are hypocrites who do unto others what had been done to the Hasan and Hussein. Some of us are actually more religious than we are political, cherishing the concept that Islam is a living religion and not one that has been carved into stone 15 centuries ago, and that the Qur'an al Majeed can be interpreted individually without the interference of muftis and sheikhs and politically-motivated a-holes. We are not for war against anybody else, and we consider Hizb to be the disgrace of Shia Islam ("Hayhat intom al zilla ya Hizb!").
So please, DO NOT, kindly, lop all Shiites together. Especially not when you are trying to attack those who hijack the religion by attacking those who are still faithful to it. Cheers!
10 January 2016, 03:50
11
Have you ever been to Aleppo before the war? I doubt it. Otherwise you would have known what a gorgeous City that is and how amazing its people are and you would have been brokenhearted every time that the destruction that is happening inside it is mentioned in the news.
Have you ever been to Damascus before the war? Have you ever been there with the mindset that you are going to a City of souks and interesting stuff, as opposed to just going to the capital of the country that has destroyed Lebanon more than even Israel has yet managed to? I, doubt it... You wouldn't have been calling Syrians by rodent names if you had.
