Russia urges new Syrian opposition leadership to participate in peace talks
The rebel Syrian National Coalition's new leader’s refusal to enter into Geneva peace talks resolving violence in Syria has been mourned by Russia’s Foreign Ministry, which urges participation in the interests of stopping the “devastating conflict.”
“According to our estimates, which are shared by our American
partners, the main task in promoting a peaceful political
solution in Syria is the consolidation of different groups within
the Syrian opposition on the platform of the Geneva protocol from
June 30, 2012,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Aleksandr
Lukashevich said on Monday.
Ahmad Jarba, the new head of the opposition Syrian National
Coalition told Reuters on Sunday that he rejected the option of
attending a peace conference in Geneva sponsored by Geneva and
the US on the grounds of the rebels’ weak position.
“Geneva in these circumstances is not possible. If we are
going to go to Geneva we have to be strong on the ground, unlike
the situation now, which is weak,” Jarba said on Sunday.
Lukashevich said that his comments “raised a number of
questions about future actions of the National Coalition and most
importantly, about its commitment to a political settlement of
the protracted crisis in Syria.”
Russia remains prepared to jointly oversee and engage in peace
talks alongside the US.
“Moscow is ready to establish contact with the new leadership of
the coalition in the interests of facilitating an end to the
devastating conflict in Syria,” Lukashevich said.
He outlined the importance of the rebels being willing to send
their representatives to the peace conference in Geneva,
“without any preconditions and through cooperative effort
start the search for specific parameters of political
settlement.”
The Syrian opposition has been sticking to their demands for
weapons amid discussions of peace talks overseen by both the US
and Russia.
The rebel collective is currently anticipating the delivery of
advanced weapons from Saudi Arabia, including shoulder-fired
missiles, to use against Syrian government air power, Jarba told
Reuters.
“I will not rest until I procure the advanced weapons needed
to hit back at Assad and his allies. ... I give myself one month
to achieve what I am intent on doing,” Jarba said, announcing
that he expected advanced weapons supplied to the rebels by Saudi
Arabia to reach his fighters “soon.”
Violence in Homs spills into tenth day
On Monday the battle between Syrian forces and rebel groups in
Homs entered its tenth day. Homs in central Syria is considered
of vital importance by both the government and rebels.
The army wrested a contested district of the city from rebels on
Monday, government officials told AP, while city-based opposition
activists countered the assertion.
The official said that the government was still facing rebel-held
pockets, while one of the activists, Abu Yasin, said government
forces had not advanced beyond a series of buildings they seized
earlier in the week.
Central parts of the city remain under the control of opposition
troops, which Assad’s forces have been targeting with air
strikes, mortar bombs and tanks. Rebels seeking his ousting have
clung on to parts of the city which they took over a year ago,
but have since been under siege.
Homs links the capital, Damascus, to army bases in both coastal
areas and Hezbollah strongholds in nearby Lebanon making it of
key strategic significance. Rebels control a large part of
northern Syria but Assad's army retook Qusair last month, a town
in Homs province and near the border with Lebanon.
The rebels proposed a truce for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which
begins in Syria on Tuesday, to stop the fighting in Homs.
The Syrian government rejected the idea on Monday, with Syria's U.N. ambassador stating "we need a full end of violence, not a partial one," according to AP.
Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari asserted that Syrian rebels would have to fully engage in the peace negotiations and commit themselves to participation in a U.S.-Russian sponsored round of talks in Geneva.
