Morning Star.png Butchers Want Preconditions for Syria Peace Talks James Tweedie, The Morning Star, London, 23 January 2106 The Syrian [so-called] opposition demanded yesterday that Damascus declares a unilateral ceasefire as a precondition of Monday's peace talks in Geneva. With just three days to go before the negotiations, opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC) deputy head George Sabra demanded a halt to Russian air strikes and Syrian army sieges of rebel-held areas. The HNC was bashed together at a conference in Saudia Arabia last month under the gaze of King Salman. Mr Sabra told the Reuters agency that even indirect talks between the government and rebels - proposed by US Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday - were out of the question. "The form of the talks does not concern us, but the conditions must be appropriate for the negotiations," he said. "So far, the obstacles in front of the conference have yet to be removed," Mr Sabra said. US magazine Foreign Policy published leaked comments by UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura on Wednesday, accusing Saudi Arabia of undermining the peace process. In a confidential briefing on Monday, Mr De Mistura said: "Riyadh is complicating efforts to find a diplomatic solution . by trying to tightly control which opposition groups will be allowed to participate in the negotiations." Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said on Thursday the opposition would "bear historic responsibility for derailing the talks because any preconditions for the launch of negotiations are unacceptable." Meanwhile, Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) co-chair Saleh Muslim warned yesterday that the talks would fail if Syrian Kurds were not represented. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu - whose government Russia has accused of aiding Islamic State (Isis) terrorists - objected to the PYD's inclusion in the talks on Thursday, claiming it was on the government's side. Mr Muslim in turn opposed the presence of one of the HNC's main factions, the Islamic fundamentalist Jaysh al-Islam. "Its mentality is the same as the Nusra Front and Isis. "It clearly wants to establish an Islamic state." From: http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-0113-Rival-camps-bicker-over-preconditi ons-of-Syria-peace-talks#.VqM9LPl9601 -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
