Morning Star.png Two delegations crave Geneva "opposition" status James Tweedie, The Morning Star, London, 25 January 2016 Diplomats claimed yesterday that the US and Russia are close to agreeing on which groups can join Syrian civil war peace talks. Bloomberg cited anonymous Western and UN officials who said it would involve two separate opposition delegations joining negotiations in Geneva. The US wants Islamist groups backed by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, such as Salafist group the Army of Islam, to attend. Meanwhile Russia wants Kurdish PYD co-chair Saleh Muslim and Syrian former deputy prime minister and opposition MP Qadri Jamil at the table. The diplomatic sources said UN special envoy Staffan de Mistura will send separate invitations to the two blocs. On Saturday, the Saudi-sponsored High Negotiations Committee (HNC) reiterated its demand for a unilateral government ceasefire before any talks take place. The coalition of Islamist groups is demanding an end to Russian air strikes and for government troops to pull back from rebel positions and allow them to bring in supplies. However, the Syrian government said yesterday it would not make new concessions in the talks. Ruling Ba'ath Party assistant secretary Hilal al-Hilal said: "We are not going to give today what we did not give over the past five years." On Saturday US Vice-President Joe Biden pledged aid for Turkish-backed Sunni Arab rebels in northern Syria. Speaking at a press conference with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in Istanbul, Mr Biden said that guerillas around Azaz should be aided in capturing a strip of the porous border with Turkey from Islamic State (Isis). Those forces are sandwiched between Kurdish YPG forces to the west, Isis to the east and the Syrian army to the south. Middle East experts have pointed out that both the US and Russia have recently launched air strikes in support of a YPG push into Isis territory west of the Euphrates, despite Turkish threats against such support. Turkey, which is renewing its oppression of Kurds at home, is seeking to exclude the Syrian Kurds from the Geneva peace talks. From: <http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-769a-Deal-close-on-who-can-go-to-Syria -talks#.VqW5gvl9600> http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-769a-Deal-close-on-who-can-go-to-Syria- talks#.VqW5gvl9600 -- -- 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.
