Syrian Opposition Threatens to Walk Out Ahead of Talks

A set of preconditions demanded by Assad’s opponents risks unraveling negotiations in Geneva before they begin.

BY COLUM LYNCH, JOHN HUDSON-JANUARY 26, 2016
Syria’s main opposition coalition informed U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon late Tuesday that it will not participate in peace talks until the Syrian government and its allies halt attacks against civilians, lift the sieges, and provide humanitarian access to distressed civilians, a U.N.-based diplomat told Foreign Policy.

The letter by lead opposition coordinator Riad Hijab drew a line in the sand for peace efforts as Staffan de Mistura, the U.N. special envoy for Syria, made a final push for negotiations to begin in Geneva on Friday. Still, U.N. officials said they remain hopeful Hijab’s Riyadh-based High Negotiations Committee could be persuaded to attend the talks.

Hijab, the HNC’s coordinator, told Ban his group looked “positively” on participating in political talks toward a transition of power and the reform of Syria’s military and national security institutions. He also expressed a willingness to continue working with de Mistura as the envoy tries to midwife new peace talks. The letter, which was written in Arabic, was translated to FP by a diplomat.

But Hijab said the U.N. Security Council must first enact “without exception” key parts of a December 2015 resolution that calls for an immediate cessation of violence, the release of detainees, and a halt to the indiscriminate bombardment of civilians.

The move comes several hours after de Mistura invited the Syrian government, the HNC, and a Russian-favored group of about 10 Syrian opposition figures to participate in the long-awaited talks in Switzerland. The decision to invite the Moscow-promoted group of Syrians was expected to rile Hijab and others who have led the nearly five-year rebellion to push Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from power.

The invitations, revealed to FP by U.N.-based diplomats, include Haytham Manna — an opposition figure with close ties to Kurdish groups that are rejected by the Turkish government — and Qadri Jamil, leader of the Syrian People’s Will Party, who enjoys strong business and political ties to Moscow. In a concession to Hijab and his U.S.- and Saudi-backed coalition, Manna, Jamil, and several others favored by Russia will not be part of the formal negotiating team in Geneva and will simply serve in an advisory capacity to the United Nations while at the talks.

The HNC says it will reject any Russian efforts to define the Syrian political movement against Assad — especially in ways that could spark internal disagreement or diminish the group’s negotiating position.
“It’s going to be very difficult to get these people on the same negotiating page,” said Andrew Bowen, a senior fellow at the Center for the National Interest. “These people are credible, but they are more open to the Russian position than the opposition figures in the Saudi group.”

The big-tent approach seeks to improve on previously failed negotiations that had excluded key groups with a stake in the nearly five-year Syrian civil war.

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