Opposition Demands Goodwill Gestures Before Joining Talks
Just one day ahead of the rescheduled Syria peace talks in Geneva, and the United Nations is still unsure as to which opposition groups will actually attend.
Syria’s main opposition coalition said on Wednesday it would not show up to the talks unless progress is made toward the lifting of government-blockades on besieged towns, halting attacks on civilian areas and other goodwill humanitarian measures.
The Saudi-backed coalition bloc, known as the Higher Negotiating Committee (HNC), met in Riyadh on Wednesday for the second day in a row to make a final decision on whether to go to Geneva.
“We are waiting for the response of de Mistura first, and then Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, which is the most important … If it is positive maybe there will be an agreement to go,” said HNC member Assad al-Zoubi, Reuters reports.
The U.S. on Wednesday called for the HNC to attend the talks.
“We believe it should seize this opportunity to test the regime’s willingness and intentions and expose before the entire world which parties are serious about a potential peaceful political transition in Syria and which are not,” said State Department spokesperson Mark Toner.
Political wrangling over the past two weeks has cast uncertainty on the talks, which already had low expectations.
The peace talks, the first in two years, are aimed at getting the Assad government and the opposition to discuss implementing a national cease-fire and a political transition ending in new elections.
U.N. special envoy Staffan de Mistura sent out invitations on Wednesday to a range of parties, 15 delegates from each side, but did not make them public due to sensitivities over participation.
According to Reuters, Russia’s deputy foreign minister Gennady Gatilov was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying de Mistura had invited Syrian foreign minister Walid al-Moallem in addition to Riyad Hijab, head of the HNC.
Among the groups who are not invited to attend Friday’s talks in Geneva are the largest Syrian Kurdish group, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) and the al-Qaida-affiliated al-Nusra Front.
Syrian Government Ignored Majority of Requests to Deliver Aid in 2015: U.N.
The Syrian government ignored most of the U.N.’s requests to deliver humanitarian aid to some of the 4.6 million people in hard to reach or besieged areas, the intergovernmental organization’s aid chief said on Wednesday.
In 2015, of the 113 requests for government approval of inter-agency aid convoys only 10 percent were able to deliver assistance, Stephen O’Brien told the U.N. Security Council.
An additional 10 percent of the year’s requests were given initial approval but never proceeded due to lack of final approval, insecurity or safe passage.
According to O’Brien, 75 percent of requests to deliver aid in 2015 went unanswered.
“Such inaction is simply unacceptable,” he said. “ The impact on the ground is tangible: In 2013, we reached some 2.9 million people through inter-agency convoy mechanism, but only 620,000 (in 2015).“
“More and more people are slipping out of our reach every day as the conflict intensifies and battle lines tighten,” O’Brien said.
According to the latest U.N. figures, the number of besieged areas in Syria has risen to 18, up from 15 earlier this month, affecting as many as half a million people.
The U.N. said its food aid reached less than 1 percent of people in besieged areas last year.
Refugees Should Be Allowed to Vote in Elections, Says Russian Security Chief
Syrian refugees should be granted the opportunity to vote in their country’s future election, Russia’s security chief has told the Associated Press, but the fate of Bashar al-Assad should be left up to the Syrian people.
Executive secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev said the international community should focus on creating conditions for a free vote in Syria, but that demands for Bashar al-Assad to step down immediately are counterproductive.
“Let’s remember the sad experience of Iraq and Libya,” Patrushev said in a written statement to AP, his first remarks to a foreign news agency. “Have they succeeded in stabilizing the situation there following a foreign intervention and physical removal of those countries’ leaders?”
The Russian security chief reaffirmed Moscow’s long-held stance that Assad’s fate and the future of the country should be left up to the Syrian people.
“What Syria should look like and who should be at its helm tomorrow must be determined by the Syrian people, not Russia or any other country,” he said.
“Different assessments could be made of the incumbent Syrian president, but insisting on his immediate departure isn’t just political short-sightedness but an open interference into affairs of a sovereign state.”
The Kremlin has denied claims that Russia’s top military intelligence officer visited Damascus recently to urge Assad to step down from power.
Recommended Reads
- Foreign Policy: How the U.N. Let Assad Edit the Truth of Syria’s War
- The Washington Post: Watered-Down Peace Talks on Syria, if They Happen, Are Unlikely to Go Anywhere
- The New York Times: Deprivation in Syria Deepens as U.N. Talks Loom
- Politico: Obama Losing Credibility with Syrian Opposition Leaders
- Al-Monitor: Syria Talk Invites Go Out … Who’s in and Who’s out?
Top image: A member of the Greek Red Cross waits for migrants and refugees to arrive on a beach of the Greek island of Lesbos Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2016. More than 850,000 people, most fleeing conflict in Syria and Afghanistan, entered Greece by sea in 2015, according to the UNHCR, and already in 2016, some 35,455 people have arrived despite plunging winter temperatures.(AP Photo/Mstyslav Chernov)