Biodun Iginla, BBC News

Biodun Iginla, BBC News

Thursday, December 10, 2015

Syria conflict: Opposition agrees framework for peace talks

3 minutes ago

by Leila Mohamed and Biodun Iginla, BBC News reporters, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia



Rebel fighters in the town of Kafr Nabudah, in Hama province, Syria (11 October 2015)Image copyright Reuters
Image caption It is the first time most of the main rebel groups have been involved in peace moves

A meeting of Syrian opposition politicians and rebels in Riyadh has produced a statement of principles to guide peace talks with the government.
The statement calls for the creation of "a pluralistic regime that represents all sectors of the Syrian people", according to the Reuters news agency.
It also stresses that President Bashar al-Assad and his aides could play no part in any transitional period.
Earlier, the powerful rebel group Ahrar al-Sham withdrew from the conference.
It complained that figures it regarded as too close to the government were being given too prominent a role.
World powers want negotiations between a unified opposition delegation and President Bashar al-Assad's government on a political solution to the four-and-a-half-year conflict to start by 1 January.

Analysis by Jim Muir, BBC Middle East correspondent

What's important about the Riyadh meeting is that it creates a framework and mechanism for a broad spectrum of the Syrian opposition and rebels to engage in settlement negotiations with the regime.
That is what the Americans and others were looking for, as a prelude to another planned meeting of the outside powers - including Russia and Iran - later this month to prepare for rebel-regime negotiations in early January.
But that doesn't mean it's going to be plain sailing.
Can Syria opposition unite?
Bashar al-Assad delivers a speech in Damascus, Syria (26 July 2015)Image copyright AP
Image caption Bashar al-Assad has said a political process could not begin while Syria was occupied by "terrorists"
More than 250,000 people have been killed since an uprising against Mr Assad began in March 2011. Eleven million others have been forced from their homes.

'Unified vision'

The two-day conference in the Saudi capital brought together representatives of the main Western-backed political opposition alliance, the National Coalition, and of the National Co-ordination Committee, which is mostly tolerated by the authorities in Damascus although some of its members have been harassed and detained.
Most of the main rebel factions, including Ahrar al-Sham, also sent delegations.
Saudi security forces deployed outside hotel in Riyadh where Syrian opposition politicians and rebels held unity talks (10 December 2015)Image copyright AP
Image caption Saudi security forces were deployed outside the hotel in Riyadh where the talks took place
On Thursday afternoon, Suhair al-Atassi of the National Coalition told the AFP news agency that delegates had agreed a framework for negotiations.
"An agreement has been reached on... a unified vision for the settlement process and a supreme committee that would act as a reference for the negotiating team, the composition of which will be specified later," she said.
Reuters quoted a joint statement as saying that delegates had backed a "democratic mechanism through a pluralistic regime that represents all sectors of the Syrian people". It would include women and would not discriminate on religious, sectarian or ethic grounds, the statement added.
Delegates also committed to preserving state institutions and restructuring the security forces, but they insisted Mr Assad would have to leave power immediately.
Map of areas of control in Syria (8 December 2015)
Mr Assad's staunch ally Russia - which launched an air campaign in September to prop up his government - supports the implementation of the 2012 Geneva Communique, which calls for the establishment of a transitional administration.
But the president has said his departure is out of the question before elections are held, and recently warned that peace talks could not begin while the country was occupied by "terrorists" - a term he uses to describe all opponents.
Earlier, Ahrar al-Sham said it had withdrawn from the Riyadh conference because of the "main role" accorded to "personalities linked to the regime" - an apparent reference to members of the National Co-ordination Committee - and the inadequate representation of "revolutionary factions".
Later reports suggested it had reversed its decision to pull out of the process.
Ahrar al-Sham fighter in Aleppo province (January 2014)Image copyright AFP
Image caption Ahrar al-Sham is a Salafist group that aims to topple President Assad and build an Islamic state
Ahrar al-Sham is an ultraconservative Islamist, or Salafist, rebel group that aims to topple Mr Assad and build an Islamic state, though it vows to achieve the latter through the ballot box and not force. It is part of Jaysh al-Fatah, an alliance that includes the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front.
US Secretary of State John Kerry meanwhile said that the new International Syrian Support Group - which includes the Arab League, the EU, the UN and 17 countries - was "working toward the potential of a meeting in New York" on 18 December.
The Syrian Kurds, who control large parts of northern Syria, were not invited to Riyadh. They held their own conference, at the same time, on the future of Syria.

More on this story

Syria's war

Background

Features and analysis


Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)