{"id":3321,"date":"2014-01-19T08:26:11","date_gmt":"2014-01-19T08:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/wp3\/?p=3321"},"modified":"2014-01-19T08:26:11","modified_gmt":"2014-01-19T08:26:11","slug":"syria-crisis-us-hails-opposition-move-to-attend-peace-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sunnionline.us\/english\/2014\/01\/19\/3321\/","title":{"rendered":"Syria crisis: US hails opposition move to attend peace talks"},"content":{"rendered":"

US Secretary of State John Kerry has welcomed a decision by Syria’s main political opposition group to attend next week’s peace talks in Switzerland.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

His praise for the Syrian National Coalition’s “courageous” move was echoed by the UK and France.<\/span>
The aim of the talks, to be held in Montreux, is to start the process of setting up a transitional government to end the war in Syria.<\/span>
The three-year conflict has claimed the lives of more than 100,000 people.<\/span>
An estimated two million people have fled the country and some 6.5 million have been internally displaced.<\/span><\/p>\n

‘Goodwill gesture’<\/strong><\/span>
Reacting to the SNC’s Saturday decision in Istanbul, Turkey, Mr Kerry said in a statement: “This is a courageous vote in the interests of all the Syrian people who have suffered so horribly under the brutality of the Assad regime and a civil war without end.”<\/span>
UK Foreign Secretary William Hague also praised the SNC’s “difficult decision”, adding: “As I have said many times, any mutually agreed settlement means that Assad can play no role in Syria’s future.”<\/span>
In Paris, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said “this brave choice, despite the provocations and acts of violence by the regime, is a choice to search for a peaceful solution”.<\/span>
Of the SNC delegates who voted at a meeting in Istanbul, 58 were in favour, 14 were against, while one abstained.<\/span>
It is less than half of the 120-member coalition, as the other members stayed away in disapproval of the venture.<\/span>
The coalition’s leader, Ahmad Jarba, said it was going to the talks “without any bargain regarding the principles of the revolution and we will not be cheated by [President Bashar al-] Assad’s regime”.<\/span>
“The negotiating table for us is a track toward achieving the demands of the revolution – at the top of them, removing the butcher from power,” he said.<\/span>
The BBC’s Jim Muir in Beirut says Western powers will be relieved at the vote, although it is less than the display of unanimity the advocates of the talks – known as Geneva II – had hoped for.<\/span>
Syrian opposition figures had earlier expressed reluctance to go to Switzerland unless President Assad was excluded from any future transitional government.<\/span>
Damascus says there cannot be any pre-conditions.<\/span>
Last week, Syria’s National Reconciliation Minister Ali Haidar said no-one should expect a breakthrough at the talks, adding: “The solution has begun and will continue through the military triumph of the state.”<\/span>
However, Syria on Friday did offer a prisoner exchange with rebels and Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said he had also presented a ceasefire plan for the second city of Aleppo during talks with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.<\/span>
In another possible gesture of goodwill, the Syrian government allowed the first aid in months to be delivered to the besieged Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk in Damascus on Saturday.<\/span>
Mr Kerry had previously urged the opposition to join the 22 January talks, arguing that they were aimed at establishing a process necessary for the formation of a transitional governing body in Syria.<\/span>
Mr Lavrov is keen for Iran to be part of the peace talks, but Mr Kerry has said that Tehran must first agree to the Geneva I communique which calls for a political transition in Syria.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:<\/span> BBC News<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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