Ankara, Beirut- The fate of future Kazakhstan-held Syria peace talks, scheduled for later January, remains undetermined as Syrian opposition parties convene in Turkey on Wednesday to name the representing delegation. Russian and Turkish delegates will be attending the sessions.
Turkey hosting opposition meetings, expected to last somewhere between two or three days, is an attempt to urge opposition members to participate at the upcoming negotiations, taking place in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana, after opposition officials stated that they will stand out the negotiations.
The objection was chiefly provoked by the attempt to exclude the opposition Syrian Opposition High Negotiation Committee from the Astana talks and the participation of Russian-backed Syrian third parties.
Sources pointed out that opposition factions, for their part, held private meetings to prepare for Astana’s scheduled peace talks. It is anticipated that the sessions would conclude to establishing the opposition parties to partake in the talks, making up the opposition delegation.
Current opposition deliberations aim at outlining a clear stance from Moscow’s backing of the regime violations to the ceasefire, sources added.
The Ankara meetings will probably arrive at an agreement for resolving Syrian regime violations. Mediating calls have been made with Tehran, sources said.
George Sabra from the High Negotiations Committee called on Tuesday on Russia and Turkey to force the Damascus regime to comply with the truce declared in Syria on Dec. 30.
In a phone interview, Sabra told EFE-a Spanish international news agency- that all the opposition factions that signed the truce are respecting it, and they are urging Moscow and Ankara to force the regime to comply.
The HNC is Syria’s main opposition alliance and encompasses both political and military groups.
Sabra said that the cessation of hostilities is in response to the requests of the Syrian people and “the factions signed it in the name of the revolution, but there is a side that does not comply and it is the regime and its militias, who are committing violations especially in the Barada valley.”
The current truce in Syria is the result of a pact between Russia which supports the Syrian regime, and Turkey which supports the opposition.