A delegation from Syria’s main opposition group flew to Geneva on Saturday to assess whether to join Damascus government officials in United Nations-brokered peace talks, an opposition representative said.
The 17-strong team included the head of the Saudi-backed Higher Negotiation Committee (HNC), which includes political and militant opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the country’s five-year civil war.
The HNC has said it wants to discuss humanitarian issues including a stop to Russian and Syrian government bombing before engaging in the peace talks that started on Friday in Geneva.
Russian air strikes on Syria have killed nearly 1,400 civilians since Moscow started its aerial campaign nearly four months ago, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, said on Saturday.
“We are going to Geneva to put to the test the seriousness of the international community in its promises to the Syrian people and to also test the seriousness of the regime in implementing its humanitarian obligations,” Riyad Naasan Agha said.
“We want to show the world our seriousness in moving towards negotiations to find a political solution,” he told Reuters.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Saturday the Geneva talks must ensure human rights are upheld as participants work towards a political transition in Syria.
“Humanitarian law must be respected and the objective of a political transition actively pursued to enable the talks to succeed,” Fabius said in a statement sent to Reuters.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov was quoted by Russian Interfax news agency as saying that no direct talks were expected in Geneva, only proxy talks. [L8N15E0ES]
Gatilov, whose country has also objected to the opposition’s composition saying it included groups that it deemed as terrorist, said there were no preconditions for the Syrian talks and that Moscow welcomed the decision by Syrian opposition coordinator, Riad Hijab, to take part in talks in Geneva.