Syria’s main opposition group selected Nasr Hariri to head the negotiating team at a new round of U.N.-backed peace talks with the Damascus government in Geneva next week, a spokesman told Reuters on Friday.
The decision came at a summit in Riyadh where, a day before, the opposition stuck by its demand that President Bashar al-Assad play no role in an interim period, despite speculation that it could soften its stance because of Assad’s battlefield strength.
The opposition groups met to seek a unified position ahead of talks after two years of Russian military intervention that has helped Assad’s government recapture all of Syria’s main cities.
“There was consensus between the various groups to choose him (Hariri) as head of the Higher Negotiations Committee to lead the opposition delegation in the coming Geneva talks,” said Ahmad Ramadan, spokesman of the Istanbul-based Syrian National Coalition.
U.N. peace talks mediator Staffan de Mistura, preparing for the next round of Geneva talks, met on Friday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who said Moscow was working with Riyadh to unify the Syrian opposition.
For many years, Western and Arab countries backed the opposition demand that Assad leave office.
But since Russia joined the war on behalf of Assad’s government it has become increasingly clear that Assad’s opponents have no path to victory on the battlefield.
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.
Zaman A Wasl- Reuters
Comments About This Article
Please fill the fields below.