23/09/2013 09:44
Syrian opposition group says it willing to attend Geneva talks
The head of the Syrian National Coalition has said the group is ready to attend a proposed Geneva conference to end the civil war, if the talks aim to establish a transitional government, Reuters reported.
It was the first clear commitment by the Western- and Arab-backed coalition to attend the proposed conference, but other opposition voices, including rebels inside Syria, said they were against talks as long as Bashar al-Assad remains president.
The SNC - made up mostly of exiled anti-Assad figures - had dithered over whether to attend the U.S- and Russian-sponsored talks, especially after a chemical weapons attack on August 21 that killed hundreds of people in Damascus.
In a letter to the U.N. Security Council dated September 19, seen by Reuters, SNC President Ahmad Jarba said the coalition "reaffirms its willingness to engage in a future Geneva Conference."
But "all parties must ... agree that the purpose of the conference will be the establishment of a transitional government with full executive powers", stipulated at the first round of international talks in Geneva last year.
Responding to his critics, Jarba said after meeting French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius in Paris on Sunday that the letter does not contradict the goals of the 2-1/2-year-old uprising to bring down Assad's autocratic rule.
"We are committed to the principles of revolution, but we are not against a political solution that is in line with what the uprising erupted for," Jarba said.