Syrian opposition will form a 50-member delegation to participate in U.N.-sponsored talks in Geneva, the main Syrian opposition meeting in the Saudi capital Riyadh told a news conference late on Thursday.
“There will be further meetings tomorrow to decide the members of the delegation and determine its working mechanism,” Basma Qadmani, a member of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, said.
The opposition on Thursday stuck by its demand that President Bashar Assad play no role in an interim period under any U.N.-sponsored peace deal, despite speculation it could soften its stance because of Assad's battlefield strength.
"The participants stressed that this [the transition] cannot happen without the departure of Bashar al Assad and his clique at the start of the interim period," opposition groups said in a communique at the end of a meeting in Saudi Arabia.
The opposition groups held the meeting to seek a unified position ahead of U.N.-backed peace talks, after two year of Russian military intervention that has helped Assad's government recapture all of Syria's major cities.
The communique said the participants supported a U.N. based political process that would allow Syria to undergo "a radical political transition" from an "authoritarian system" to a democracy where free elections would be upheld.
The meeting of over 140 participants from a broad spectrum of the mainstream opposition, including independents and Free Syrian Army military factions, also blamed the Syrian government for the lack of progress in Geneva-based talks held in the past.
"The political process has not achieved its goal because of the regime's violations," the communique said, citing the bombing of civilian areas, the siege of rebel held areas and the detention of tens of thousands of dissidents.
Syria's civil war, now in its seventh year, has killed hundreds of thousands of people and created the world's worst refugee crisis, driving more than 11 million people from their homes.
There had been speculation that the opposition could soften its demands that Assad leave power before any transition at the meeting. Riyad Hijab, an opposition hardliner who led the High Negotiations Committee that represented the opposition at previous rounds of negotiations, abruptly quit this week.
One of the most tragic facts that the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad will stay in power.
One of the most brutal rulers in history who has killed half million Syrians and displaced 11 millions more will not survive accountability even if all bloods and efforts to oust him have failed. Even if the international and regional powers push to keep Assad and his totalitarian regime.
The Syrian people will continue their revolution to seize their freedom and dignity from the claws of the war criminals who pounded their own people with chemical weapons and Banned cluster bombs.
Meanwhile, the Russian President Vladimir Putin is mobilizing support for his post-war agenda in Syria before the Sochi Peace Congress in the Black Sea resort city. Such a move sparks the fears of Syrian people.
Assad’s warm visit to Putin and the sickening hug between the sincere allies in Sochi on Monday was telling a nightmare for Syrians: 'Assad is saying'.
Assad said at a videotaped meeting with Putin’s top generals he had passed to Putin (Syrians) greetings and gratitude for all of the efforts that Russia made to save Syria. Assad wanted to tell Putin that ‘mission is accomplished. Thank you, because of you I still the president. No matter what the cost is. I still the president.’
Putin’s major diplomatic push to end the Syrian war in Sochi congress will not end the Syrian revolution to oust the Assad regime.
The opposition figures who bravely defied the regional and the International pressure to Accept Assad in the transitional period will continue their peaceful fight to oust him sooner or later. They will stick to their demand that Assad must leave power.
The stricken people will not accept Putin’s framework for the future of Syria. His planned elections under United Nations supervision will bring Assad again to power.
It's been seven years since Daraa’s boys engraved on their school walls ‘The People Want To Overthrow The Regime’. This demand is still our priority, even if it will take seven more years of struggle.
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