Iran Angered by Saudi-Hosted Rebel Talks

The meeting of Syrian opposition groups set to begin Tuesday in Saudi Arabia, which marks the largest effort to unify opponents of President Bashar al-Assad, has riled Riyadh’s arch rival, Iran.

While divisions over the fate of Assad threaten the feasibility of the political track recently set in place in Vienna, the Saudi meeting may allow for the formation of a more unified front that is better able to negotiate with the government in Damascus, Reuters reports.

Iran, however, has said the Saudi-led meeting is aimed at damaging the Vienna plan, which has called for negotiations between the Syrian government and the opposition by January 1, and that it would cause its failure.

Members of the Syrian opposition and their foreign backers see the meeting as a long-overdue step in ending the disunity that has been an enduring obstacle to any diplomatic process between the two sides.

The talks in Riyadh are set to include representatives from two of the more powerful Islamist rebel factions in Syria: Jaish al-Islam and Ahrar al-Sham.

While the founder of Ahrar al-Sham has links to al-Qaida, and the group often fights alongside al-Nusra Front, al-Qaida’s branch in Syria, the group says it has a strictly nationalist agenda.

Syrian Kurdish rebels, who are backed by the U.S. and have been the most successful ground force in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS), have not been invited to the table due to Turkish objections and will hold their own separate conference in the northern Syrian city of Hassakeh.

Russia Calls for U.N. Talks on Turkish Military Action in Syria

Russia has requested that the United Nations Security Council holds private discussions on Turkey’s military involvement in Syria and Iraq, diplomats told Reuters on Monday.

The move is the latest incident in two weeks of rising tension between Moscow and Ankara, set in motion on November 24 when Turkey downed a Russian jet near the Turkish-Syrian border.

“We don’t have details, but Russia has asked us to discuss the issue of Turkish action in Iraq and Syria,” said an anonymous diplomat.

In a separate incident, Iraq has accused Turkey of violating its sovereignty after Ankara deployed a contingent of heavily armed troops to a camp near the front line in northern Iraq last week.

U.S.-Led Airstrikes Kill 26 Civilians, Says Monitor

U.S.-led coalition airstrikes targeting ISIS positions in Syria on Monday killed at least 26 civilians, Time reports.

The raid, which targeted the village of al-Khan in the northern Hassakeh province, killed only civilians, including seven children, according to the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

A spokesman for the U.S. military said the reports of civilian casualties would be taken “seriously,” and would be addressed if deemed credible.

Recommended Reads

• Reuters: Rebel Groups Supported by the U.S. or Its Allies Are Turning Their Guns on Each Other in Syria
• The Independent: As a Syrian, I Know There’s Only One Way to Defeat ISIS
• The New York Times: U.S. Strategy Seeks to Avoid ISIS Prophecy
• War on the Rocks: Refugees and the Islamic State’s Colonization Strategy
• The Guardian: The ISIS Papers: A Masterplan for Consolidating Power

Top image: Syrian rebels attend a training session in Maaret Ikhwan near Idlib, on Dec. 17, 2012. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen, File)