Khoja added that the aim of the conference is to come up with a joint consensual document for the upcoming transitional phase on the basis of the Geneva I and Vienna conferences.
Last month, top diplomats from 17 countries - including key backers and opponents of Bashar al-Assad - agreed in Vienna on a fixed calendar that would see a transition government set up in six months and elections within 18 months.
“The major aim lies in uniting the opposition’s stance through the (Riyadh) conference,” Khoja said.
Observers Al Arabiya News Channel spoke with said the Riyadh conference is tantamount to the last opportunity to end the Syrian crisis and unite the opposition factions or else we’re facing the option of the “Somalization” of Syria if participants fail to reach a common vision.
Syrian opposition groups began arriving in Riyadh on Tuesday morning in an attempt to unite their ranks before December 18, which is the date set for a New York meeting to discuss a political solution for the Syrian crisis.
The Saudi-organized talks, due to start on Wednesday, mark the first time representatives of some of Syria’s various political and armed opposition factions come together since the outbreak of the country’s conflict in March 2011.
The goal is to form a unified bloc for talks with Bashar al-Assad that world powers hope can be held before January 1.
Some 100 delegates are expected for the talks in Riyadh.
Among those attending are representatives of the SNC and of the National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change as well as representatives of armed factions, some of whom follow the command of the Free Syrian Army and others who belong to Jaish al-Islam and Ahrar al-Sham.
Jaish al-Islam leader Zahran Alloush said on Monday that he will send delegates to attend the meeting...
[alarabiya.net]
9/12/15
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US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday that Saudi-led talks to try to unite Syrian opposition groups had made progress, an important step for advancing political talks on ending the Syrian conflict...
ReplyDeleteSaudi Arabia, a strong supporter of the rebels fighting for more than four years to topple President Bashar al-Assad, is hosting the opposition this week in the most ambitious attempt yet to find an agreed platform ahead of planned international peace talks in New York.
Bringing the fragmented opposition together is seen by its backers as a crucial step to end a civil war which started with protests against Assad in 2011 and quickly drew in rival Sunni and Shi'ite Muslim powers across the Middle East.
"The meeting in Saudi Arabia appears to be very constructive at this point ... but I think everybody is moving in the direction that they want to rapidly get to a political process," Kerry said on the sidelines of climate talks in Paris.
"So we made progress but we have some tough issues to get over," he said.........Reuters.........timesofindia.indiatimes.com
10/12/15