‘Mission of hope’ as Syria peace talks begin

 There can be no talk of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad staying in power; the Syrian opposition leader Ahmed Jarba told the first day of international talks convened in Switzerland to seek peace for the Middle East country.

Jarba accused Assad’s forces of supporting al-Qaeda on the ground in Syria and called on Assad’s government delegation to commit to the so-called “Geneva I” agreement immediately and transfer power to an interim governing body.

Jarba’s speech was broadcasted on Syrian state TV accompanied by videos titled “the crimes of the Syrian opposition.”

During the Geneva II peace talks in Montreux, U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon urged Syria's warring sides to seize the opportunity to resolve their conflict.

“After nearly three painful years of conflict and suffering in Syria, today is a day of hope," Ban said.“You have an enormous opportunity and responsibility to render a service to the people of Syria,” he said.

“We know that it has been an extremely difficult path to reach this point. We have lost valuable time and many, many lives. Let me not mince words, the challenges before you and before all of us are formidable. But your presence here raises hope,” Ban added in his opening remarks.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the talks will not be simple neither will not be quick and that parties at the Syrian talks are facing “historic responsibility.”

Lavrov also called on “external players no to meddle in Syria’s internal affairs, while clarifying that the aim of the conference is to end the “tragic conflict” in the war torn country to prevent a spillover in the region.

U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry said that the peace talks are the beginning in of “a tough, complicated negotiation to end the Syria war.”

Kerry also said in an opening statement that the Syrian president will not be part of any new transitional government.

"We need to deal with reality here...mutual consent which is what has brought us here for a transitional government means that that government cannot be formed by someone that is objected to by one side or not," Kerry said.

"That means that Bashar al-Assad will not be part of that transitional government. There is no way, not possible in the imagination, that the man who has lead the brutal response to his own people could regain legitimacy to govern," he added.

Syrian defiance

Also during the U.N. backed talks, Syrian Foreign Minister Waleed al-Muallem accused countries who have imported terrorism in Syria to be attending the talks.

“Countries that have exported terrorism are sitting among us now,” Muallem said.

“These countries have preached to Syria with honor, while they soak in mud and backwardness,” he said.

"These countries have used their petrodollars to export terrorism to Syria," he added, in an apparent reference to Gulf states, who have supported the Syrian opposition.

"It is regrettable to me and to the people of Syria that representatives of states in this room are sitting with us today, while blood is on their hands -- countries that have sent weapons ... encouraged and financed terrorism," Muallem said.

"They have not looked at their own glass houses before throwing stones," he said. 

"The mask has fallen and we can see the real face of what they want -- to destabilise Syria .. by exporting terrorism -- to hide their barbaric behaviour," he thundered.

Syria slams the role of foreign Sunni Islamist fighters who have flocked to the war-torn country -- though Assad is backed by Shiite Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah -- and says it is locked in a "war on terror".

"Who told you that Syria wants to go back 1,000 years," he said, warning against extreme Islamism.

"It will not stop in Syria," he said.

He singled out Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for backing the opposition.

"All of this would not have happened if it had not been for Erdogan -- they did not know that magic would turn against the magician one day -- terrorism has no religion," he said.

“I have the right to give the Syrian version here,” Muallem said, when he was confronted by Ban Ki-moon for speaking longer than the set speech time. The comment erupted into a brief bickering episode between the pair, as the Syrian delegate said he "promised" to speak only two more minutes, adding: "Syria always keeps it's promises."

Addressing John Kerry, the Syrian foreign minister said that no one outside the Syrian territory has the right to remove Assad from power.

Muallem also called the country's opposition “traitors” and foreign “agents,” in his remarks.

“They claim to represent the Syrian people. If you want to speak in the name of the Syrian people, you should not be traitors to the Syrian people, agents in the pay of enemies of the Syrian people,” Muallem said.

Before the conference kicked off, Iranian President Hassan Rowhani said the peace talks were unlikely to be successful, according to the official IRNA news agency. Iran, a major backer of Assad, was univited to the conference by the U.N. chief this week following the Syrian opposition threatening to withdraw from the talks if Tehran attended.

“Because of the lack of influential players in the meeting, I doubt about the Geneva II meeting's success in fighting against terrorism ... and its ability to resolve the Syria crisis," Rowhani said.

“The Geneva II meeting has already failed without it even being started,” he added.

Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister s called for immediate ceasefires in Syria and the opening of humanitarian corridors to deliver aid to civilians.

Fabius said: “This terrible situation, which is killing thousands of innocent women, children and men, exists. We asked from the onset of this conference that one or more ceasefires are put into place and that humanitarian corridors are opened and medicines delivered.”

The Syrian government of Assad “bears a heavy responsibility in this situation but at the same time in the rise of criminal terrorism which it says it is fighting, but in reality is allied to,” Fabius added.

The U.N.-backed talks are set to bring on the same table representatives from the Assad government as well as the main opposition backed by the West.

On the eve of the conference, the situation in the war-torn country did not seem to calm down especially with the accusation by three former war crime international prosecutors that Assad’s regime has been "industrial-scale killing" and torturing detainees.

But the Syrian justice ministry on Wednesday slammed thereport as "politicized," calling the shocking photos in the document "fake."

"The justice ministry completely denies the veracity of the report," Syrian state news agency SANA quoted the ministry as saying in a statement.

"It is a politicized report that lacks objectivity and professionalism," the ministry said.

It is the first time that the Syrian regime and the opposition will meet since the beginning of the civil war which killed more than 130,000 dead and left millions displaced.Al Arabiya