Geneva, (IINA) - A UN spokeswoman said that Syrian peace talks will begin as scheduled here on Friday; however, Syrian opposition members said they would not attend and that their team would instead be conducting further internal discussions in Saudi Arabia, DPA reported.
Key members of the opposition have been indicating that their participation may discontinue if the Syrian government did not stop airstrikes before talks begin. Officials say they are awaiting "clarifications" from the UN.
"None of the committee members will be in Geneva Friday as they are still waiting for answers", Ahmad Ramadan, spokesman for the Syrian National Council, told DPA by phone from Istanbul.
Meetings in the Saudi capital, where the opposition hold talks with other groups, will continue Friday, he said.
Monzer Makhous, a Syrian National Council spokesman, spoke Al-Arabiya’s Al-Hadath TV channel, indicating the opposition was not yet heading to Geneva.
Riyad Hijab, head of the Syrian opposition's High Committee for Negotiations, said in an interview with Dubai-based TV channel Al-Arabiya that the committee members "do see prospects for these negotiations".
"We are not going to the negotiations because the discussed agenda is not accepted by us. We had earlier said [during the previous talks] that we do not want any role for [Syrian President] Bashar Al-Assad in future Syria", he said, adding that the opposition’s participation has not been decided yet.
Hijab said they will not take part in the talks before achieving their humanitarian demands, mainly stopping the random bombardment of Syrians and lifting the siege across Syria.
"We tell to [UN envoy for Syria Staffan] de Mistura and to the entire world we have asked that the humanitarian issue should be separated from the political [cause]", he said.
Hijab further accused the regime of using such talks to manipulate the Syrian cause. "The regime is using diplomacy to active their goals and not to reach a solution to the crisis", he said.
UN spokeswoman Khawla Mattar had earlier said that the talks would move ahead as scheduled, but noted that some issues would only be clarified Friday morning.
Meanwhile, de Mistura in a video message addressed to the Syrian people urged the parties in the civil war to put an end to the bloodshed. "Five years of this conflict have been too much," he said, adding that the talks are an opportunity that must not be missed.
He stressed that it was up to the combatants to help the Syrian people. The envoy has called on the parties to come to Geneva without preconditions and negotiate a ceasefire.
The Syrian government's representative, diplomat Bashar Al-Jaafari, was en route to the Swiss city, a source close to Damascus said.
In Washington, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the talks do not involve face-to-face talks, but that UN officials would serve as interlocutors between the government and the opposition.
"We're hopeful that we can continue to move the ball forward, but no one underestimates how difficult that challenge is", he said.
The opposition's Higher Negotiations Committee has been meeting in the Saudi capital Riyadh for a third day in a row to adopt a final position on participation in the negotiations with the Syrian government.
Samir Al-Nashar, a member of the opposition Syrian National Coalition, had earlier told DPA they may send a smaller delegation to discuss the group's position with UN representatives.
Talks were thrown into doubt this week after the main opposition, which considers itself the sole representative of those outside President Bashar Al-Assad's government, was angered about invitations that had reportedly been issued to other groups.
World powers hope that the Geneva negotiations will initiate a political process to resolve Syria's conflict, which started in 2011 with peaceful protests against Al-Assad. The war is estimated to have killed more than 250,000 people.
AG/IINA
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