Syrian National Council agrees to peace talks in Switzerland
1st face-to-face meeting between Syrian government and opposition since crisis began in March 2011
The main, western-backed Syrian opposition group voted Saturday in favour of attending a coming peace conference aimed at ending the country's bloody civil war, paving the way for the first direct talks between the rival sides in the nearly three-year conflict.
The vote in Istanbul came as food supplies began entering a besieged rebel-held Palestinian refugee camp in Syria's capital for the first time in months, an apparent goodwill gesture by President Bashar al-Assad's government ahead of the peace conference, Palestinian and United Nations officials said.
The Coalition was under huge pressure from its Western and Arab sponsors to attend the peace talks, scheduled to open Wednesday in the Swiss city of Montreux. The Syrian government has already said it will attend the UN-sponsored talks.
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The Coalition's leader, Ahmad al-Jarba, said in a speech late Saturday that they are heading to the conference "without any bargain regarding the principles of the revolution and we will not be cheated by Assad's regime."
"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," Jarba said.
UN calls for diverse delegation
But many Coalition members are hesitant to attend a conference that has little chance of success and will burn the last shred of credibility the group has with powerful rebels on the ground, who reject the talks. Many members boycotted the Istanbul meetings that began on Friday, forcing the Coalition's legal committee to approve the decision in a simple majority vote.
The Syrian National Coalition's media office said that of 73 voters, 58 voted in favour of attending the conference. It added that 14 voted against attending the conference, two abstained and one simply turned in a blank ballot.
The aim of the conference, dubbed Geneva 2, is to agree on a roadmap for Syria based on one adopted by the U.S., Russia and other major powers in June 2012. That plan includes the creation of a transitional government and eventual elections.
The U.S. and Russia have been trying to hold the peace conference since last year and it has been repeatedly delayed. Both sides finally agreed to sit together on the negotiations table after dropping some of their conditions.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement Saturday that he looks forward to "the opposition’s expedited formation of a delegation that broadly represents the diversity of the Syrian opposition, including women."
One of the main demands of the opposition was that Assad agrees to step down before going to the conference. With his government troops keeping their momentum on the ground, Assad's government has said he will not surrender power and may run again in elections due in mid-2014.
It will be the first face-to-face meeting between the representatives of the Syrian government and the opposition since the country's crisis began in March 2011. Activists say the fighting has killed more than 130,000 people while displacing millions.