UN diplomats and Syrian Opposition leaderships have considered the probability of the first round of negotiations that was set on Jan. 25, being delayed.

Moreover, official sources in France have told Asharq Al-Awsat that Paris today remains “preserved” towards launching the “Geneva 3.0” Syrian peace talks and the chances of its success.

France considers that if a clear cut agenda is not present, then the negotiations’ mechanisms will not launch as expected. “Delay appears likely,” one diplomatic source told Reuters. This also appeared to be the underlying message coming from U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura’s, in a closed-door briefing via video link for the Security Council, diplomatic sources also told Reuters.

However, eyes now are fixed on the anticipated meeting between the US Secretary John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, which will be held in Switzerland, and is set to be a decisive meeting for the first round of Syrian peace talks.

All indicators show that the peace talks are heading towards a delay, given that the UN is holding back the invitations from participating parties, until great power countries agree on who’s going to represent the Syrian Opposition’s delegation.

On the other hand, Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir reaffirmed that the Syrian Opposition is the only one concerned with who gets to represent it in the negotiations against the Syrian regime. FM al-Jubeir highlighted that the higher committee that has emerged from the broadened Riyadh conference, which included the whole Syrian spectrum, will be the committee that specifies who gets to represent the Syrian Opposition for the negotiations.

Moreover, on Jan.19 during his presentation on peace talks preparations, UN envoy de Mistura to the UN Security Council voiced his hope on both participating

parties to take initiatives of good intentions that could lead to lifting off the blockage of several Syrian towns.