Tabnak – As the Turkish military operation in northern Syria is still going on and the situation on the ground is still far from stable, Russia’s initiative to gather together different Syrian factions for political talks seems to be a non-starter.
In one of the latest developments regarding the Syrian crisis, the Syrian opposition announced that it will not attend a peace conference Russia is hosting next week, dismissing the meeting as an attempt by the Syrian government’s close ally to “sideline” the current United Nations peace process.
“This whole round [of talks’ in Vienna was supposed to be a crucial one, a test for commitment. And we didn’t see this commitment. And the UN didn’t see this commitment,” said Yahya al-Aridi, a spokesman for the opposition delegation at the Vienna talks, according to Reuters.
“It’s quite clear that somebody there is obstructing the whole process and wanting to sideline the importance of Geneva, the political process as a whole,” al-Aridi said.
However, it was reported later on Saturday that United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has decided to send his special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, to the upcoming Syrian peace conference in Russia.
Guterres "is confident that the congress in Sochi will be an important contribution" to revive the UN-sponsored peace talks in Geneva, UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Saturday.
The next round of intra-Syrian national dialogue between Damascus and the opposition would commence in Sochi on Monday. On Thursday, Russia said some 1,600 people had been invited to the talks aimed at resolving the years-long crisis in the Arab country.
Last December, Russia, Iran and Turkey agreed to hold the congress in Sochi on January 29-30. While the Syrian government at the time immediately announced that it would attend the event, 40 Syrian opposition groups rejected the Russian initiative, which is also aimed at agreeing on a post-war constitution in the Arab country.
Eight rounds of Syria peace talks, which took place in the Swiss city of Geneva, failed to achieve tangible results, mainly due to the opposition’s insistence that the Syrian government cede power.
A parallel peace process between Syria’s warring parties in the Kazakh capital Astana has resulted in significant achievements instead, leading to ceasefires and the establishment of de-escalation zones across the conflict-ridden country. The Astana talks have been brokered by Iran, Russia and Turkey.
Meanwhile, in another development regarding Syria, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Jaberi Ansari met with President al-Assad. The two sides discussed the latest developments in Syria, particularly the Turkish army’s latest movements in Syria's Kurdish-controlled Afrin region.
Recently, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that Turkey would launch an attack on Afrin, which is controlled by the YPG in a bid to “purge terror” from his country’s southern border.
