UK urges Syrian opposition to attend

Geneva peace talks

Exclusive: Philip Hammond, the foreign secretary, says failure to
participate in Fridays UN conference would play into President Bashar alAssads hands
Britain has urged the Syrian opposition not to hand President Bashar alAssad a propaganda coup by boycotting this weeks Geneva peace talks
because they object to some of the groups invited to the conference by the
UN.
Philip Hammond, the foreign secretary, made the appeal as negotiators
representing the opposition met in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, to thrash out
a crucial decision on whether they should attend the long-awaited talks on
Friday.
Syrian sources said the 32-member body was split about what to do after
a tense weekend meeting with John Kerry, the US secretary of state. Kerry
is said to have spoken bluntly about the need to participate in the talks, and
to accept the conditions being laid down by the UN.
Hammond insisted the Geneva talks were going to go ahead and said it
was always likely that the UN would be able to arrange indirect proximity
talks only at this first stage, rather than direct talks between the Syrian
regime and the opposition.
He told the Guardian: For the opposition not to attend the talks would
hand a propaganda coup to the regime. The opposition must engage in the
talks. We need to focus on confidence-building measures, including a
ceasefire.
Russia, which sponsors Assad, needed to be put to the test about whether it
was truly interested in peace and the defeat of Islamic State, as opposed to
crushing the moderate opposition, Hammond said.
Riyad Hijab, a former Syrian prime minister and head of the opposition
higher negotiations committee, favours taking part in the talks, the sources

said, adding that Saudi Arabia was also exerting heavy pressure on the
Syrians to go to Geneva.
Staffan de Mistura, the UN Syria envoy, issued invitations to the talks on
Tuesday, but failed to invite the Kurdish PYD, political wing of the YPG
militia, apparently because of Turkish opposition. Other figures invited at
Russian insistence are seen by the mainstream opposition as being too
close to the regime.
De Mistura has said that his priorities for the proximity talks between the
Syrian government and opposition will be securing a ceasefire, fighting Isis
and broadening humanitarian assistance. He has said the talks will last for
six months but has been lowering expectations about what they are likely to
achieve.
No discussion is planned in Geneva of Assads future role or creating a
transitional government in Damascus, which are both key demands of the
rebels. Opposition supporters complain that that is in line with a plan
drawn up by Iran, Assads closest supporter, for ending the crisis.
Clearly, there will be no negotiations between the opposition and the
Assad regime to achieve a specific goal, but rather a Syrian forum under the
auspices of the UN envoy will convene at the expense of the main issue,
said Burhan Ghalioun, a leading member of the opposition Syrian national
coalition.
Thus, there will be neither accountability nor transition towards
democracy but talks and endless discussions, he said.
This approach will not only exempt the Assad regime from responsibility
for the crisis, but will also present the regime as the only salvation for a
community that is fragmented and divided. Likewise, Tehran will appear as
a guarantor of Syrias unity after it was the dynamite that blew it apart.
Hammond attacked Russia for targeting civilians. There is no question
that is what they are doing and almost certainly in breach of international
humanitarian law, and it has to stop, he said.
They are sitting at a table as participants in a political process, yet on the
battlefield they are killing in large numbers the moderate opposition

fighters that have to be part of the political solution. The Russians would
acknowledge themselves that a political solution in Syria has to involve the
moderate opposition members and yet they are waging a war of attrition
against them and killing large numbers of civilians.
We would expect Russia as a key player to play a part in delivering those
confidence-building measures.