A tractor removes rubble as the Syrian government starts to clean up areas formerly held by opposition forces in the northern city of Aleppo, yesterday.
BEIRUT: The Syrian opposition’s main political body on Tuesday urged rebel groups to cooperate with “sincere regional efforts” to reach a ceasefire deal but that it had not been invited to any conference, referring to a meeting in Kazakhstan proposed by Russia.
Riad Hijab, general coordinator for the High Negotiations Committee (HNC), said confidence-building measures were needed to create an atmosphere for political transition talks which should be held in Geneva and sponsored by the United Nations.
Syrian govt and opposition in talks: Russia
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted yesterday as saying that the Syrian government was consulting with the opposition ahead of possible peace talks, but a Saudi-backed opposition group said it knew nothing of the negotiations.
Lavrov did not say where the consultations were taking place or which opposition groups were taking part.
Russia, Iran and Turkey said last week they were ready to help broker a peace deal after holding talks in Moscow where they adopted a declaration setting out the principles any agreement should adhere to.
Arrangements for the talks, which would not include the United States and be distinct from separate intermittent UN-brokered negotiations, remain hazy, but Moscow has said they would take place in Kazakhstan, a close ally.
“During the recent meeting in Moscow with my colleagues from Iran and Turkey we approved a joint declaration in which we confirmed our readiness to guarantee a future agreement between the Syrian government and the opposition,” Lavrov told the Interfax news agency in an interview.
“Negotiations about that are going on,” he said. Interfax said he was referring to talks between the opposition and the Syrian government.
The High Negotiations Committee, a body grouping armed and political opponents of President Bashar al-Assad, said it had no knowledge of the consultations.
“We in the High Negotiations Committee certainly have no connection to this matter,” George Sabra, a member of the HNC, said. The HNC includes armed groups fighting Assad under the banner of the Free Syrian Army. It took part in a failed bid to launch peace talks earlier this year. The HNC was established in Saudi Arabia with Riyadh’s backing in December 2015. President Vladimir
Putin has said that Russia, Iran and Turkey and Assad have agreed that Astana, the Kazakh capital, should be the venue for new talks.
Russian officials say preparations for the talks are under way, but that invitations to participants have not been sent out and the exact timing has yet to be decided. The officials, who have spoken of mid-January as a possible date, say it is too early to talk about contacts with the HNC. Lavrov spoke to Mevlut Cavusoglu, his Turkish counterpart, by telephone on Tuesday. The two men agreed to push for a nationwide ceasefire in Syria and to prepare for the Astana talks, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
