Jarba addresses Coalition members, clarifies controversial 'NYtimes' Interview

 New elected National Coalition President will attend Geneva 2 with preconditions, saying my Interview with the New York Time was out of context.

 Ahmed Jarba has denied what 'New York Times' reported about participation in the peace conference in Geneva ''with representatives of President Bashar al-Assad without preconditions.''

Jarba has addressed the coalition members in a message clarifying the controversial interview.

Zaman Alwasl's source told our reporter in Istanbul 5 days ago that  Ahmad Jarba, Coalition president, didn't say he would attend Geneva2, ''Jarba's words had been deducted from its context.

Mr. Jarba, said in his interview in New York that he wanted assurances that there would be a deadline for making progress.

“We believe there should be a precise time frame,” Mr. Jarba said to NY times. “The regime is used to manipulating the process and wasting time.”

Mr. Jarba, who met last week with Secretary of State John Kerry, said that he would not propose a specific deadline until the talks are closer at hand. But Burhan Ghalioun, a Syrian opposition member who participated in the meeting with Mr. Kerry, said that the opposition believes “Geneva must accomplish something in the first six months.”

Jarba told Mr. Kerry clearly that No Bashar al-Assad in the new transitional government or any officials from the Syrian regime, who involved in the Syrian bloodshed,'' the source said to Zaman Alwasl.

 “We will lose all credibility if the regime draws us into three or four years of talks, which have no substance,” Mr. Ghalioun said.

Mr. Jarba called the military situation in Homs “extremely difficult,” but “not impossible.”

A leader of the Shammar tribe, which has branches in Saudi Arabia and Iraq, Mr. Jarba, 

Mr. Ghalioun said the opposition had told Mr. Kerry in their meeting that such steps also needed to include an end to artillery attacks, airstrikes and missile launches by the government forces.

That, he said, prompted Mr. Kerry to ask what the resistance might do in return, an important question as the opposition coalition does not control all the rebel groups, especially extremist factions like the Al Nusra Front.

Mr. Ghalioun quipped that the opposition would renounce the use of chemical weapons, which American officials say the rebels neither possess nor can access.

Mr. Jarba said that Mr. Kerry had mentioned that the opposition could put Mr. Assad on the defensive politically by attending the talks. But Mr. Jarba said he had little confidence that the Geneva talks would yield a breakthrough.

“I believe Geneva might happen," he said. “But will it produce a political solution? This is the question. I am not overwhelmingly optimistic because I know how this regime thinks.”

In relevant context, 29 members of the Opposition National Coalition have joined the veteran dissident Haytham al-Maleh in his claims about the invalidity of political commission election as well as the coalition expanding.

 The petition has just came after a letter was published by  Zaman Alwasl by the head of legal committee, who criticized the polarization within the National Coalition.

Al-Maleh says that he is disappointment regarding the latest expanding list of the coalition members which is not legal according to Coalition's law and procedures.

 The Sheikh of lawyers, as he well-know, said it was all of sudden to read statement that coalition will meet representatives of Bashar al-Assad without preconditions; we shouldn't be silent for such statements, according to Zaman Alwasl Arabic.

The stubborn ex-detainee have asked why the coalition members used to criticize Sheikh Mouaz al-Khatib, former coalition president and now we don't hear any word regarding the abuses made by many members.

Al-Khatib shared al-Maleh letter on his FaceBook page. He wrote and Arabic poetry says, '' Injustice by brothers in blood is more bitterness than injustice by enemies, it's more heartbreaking.''

Jarba doesn't want to raise arguments within the coalition, he is more diplomatic and tend to catch the stick from the middle, reliable source in the Coalition said.

A week ago, Secretary General of the National Coalition, Dr. Badr Jamous, has filed a complaint to Jarba against political commission member over insulting Jamous and using obscene words.

Zaman Alwasl source said that Jamous had made a formal request to open an investigation last week against the member who joined the main opposition group in the last expanding, who insulted him in front of a number of members of the Political Commission, as well as he used obscene words against the Director of the coalition Information Office, Khaled Saleh.

Jamous says that he will not attend any further Coalition meetings until holding fair accountable. 

 Among the coalition disputes, more than 150,000 people have been killed in the conflict, according to the U.N.'s recent estimate.

 On July 31, the United Nations said an estimated 6.8 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance in Syria.