Syrian opposition questioning peace talks attendance after U.S. warning

PanARMENIAN.Net - Senior Syrian opposition figures are questioning whether they should attend peace talks next month following U.S. warnings that the swift departure of President Bashar al-Assad from power cannot be guaranteed, opposition sources said on Friday, Dec 20, according to Reuters.

Speaking after meeting U.S. Ambassador Robert Ford in Istanbul this week, they said he had told them not to expect quick results from the talks, due to start in Switzerland on January 22, and that it was not up to Washington to remove Assad.

The planned talks are the most serious international effort yet to find a political solution to an almost three-year-long conflict which has killed more than 100,000 people, made many millions homeless, and become a proxy war between the Middle East's Sunni and Shi'ite Muslim powers.

Assad, bolstered by Shi'te Iran and its regional allies, has recovered some of the ground he lost to Sunni Muslim rebels and his officials have ruled out surrendering any power at the Geneva 2 talks, defying opposition demands that Assad must go.

Leaders of the main political opposition in exile, the National Coalition, said they are ready to attend the talks. But they insist that the process must lead to Assad's departure, and have yet to formally agree on participation.

While reiterating the U.S. mantra that Assad has no future in Syria, Ford warned the opposition that unless rebel brigades overcome a split between Western-backed moderate forces and Islamists who oppose the Geneva talks, Assad looked set to stay.

He also said the Geneva process was likely to go on for months, sources at the talks told Reuters.

"The message we got was that there could be no guarantees. The U.S. said they want Assad out, but it's really got to be in the hands of the Syrian people," said a coalition member who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.

That kind of language has given Geneva skeptics within the coalition more ammunition.

"This makes the top leadership very upset. They are sincerely evaluating whether they should be going to Geneva," he added.