Coalition's Political Body recommended 8 members to join Opposition's Negotiators Team: source

(Zaman Al Wasl)- The Political Body of Western-backed Syrian National Coalition has recommended 8 of its members to join Opposition's negotiators team which is supposed to lead future peace talks with Bashar al-Assad regime, sources told Zaman al Wasl.

The proposed list includes Hisham Marwa, Anas albdeh, Hadi al Bahra, Abdul Ahad Estaifo, Nagham al-Ghaderi, Badr Jamous and Riyad la-Hassan.

The Syrian opposition hosted by Saudi Arabia have elected former Prime Minister Riad Hijab as a coordinator of a body that is expected to lead the peace talks, Reuters and Zaman al-Was sources said on Thursday.

Hijab said on Friday that the Syrian opposition wants a political transition without President Bashar al-Assad.

Hijab, who defected from al Assad's government in 2012, was chosen on Thursday during a meeting in the Saudi capital Riyadh by a majority of 24 votes of the 34 members of the body, a source inside the meeting said.

The United States, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and major European and Arab powers outlined a plan last month for a political process in Syria leading to elections within 18 months, in the hope of ending its five-year-old civil war.

It includes a nationwide ceasefire and six months of talks beginning in January between Assad's government and the opposition on forming a unity government.

Zaman al Wasl reported on Tuesday that the opposition figures who worked with the Syrian regime and have large government experience will take the lead in the negotiators team, mainly, Hijab and Riyad Nassan Agha, former Culture Minister and veteran diplomat who was elected as a spokesman.

Al-Assad declared day after Riyadh meetings that he would not negotiate with armed groups, appearing to scupper peace talks that Russia and the United States hope to bring about next month.