Although Russia offcially announced on Friday that an agreement had been reached with Damascus, the Syrian opposition remains skeptical about the Syrian government’s participation in new peace talks.
“We would like to hear that statement from the Assad government. This has been related to us through the Russians, I have no idea why the Syrians are silent,” the spokesman for the National Coalition, Louay Safi, said at a conference held in Istanbul, according to AFP.
The conference, dubbed Geneva II, aims to gather all parties involved to find a solution to the two-year long conflict that has killed over 90,000 and displaced a quarter of Syria’s population.
The statement was made on Friday, the second day of a three-day long meeting of the main Syrian opposition in Istanbul, Turkey to discuss conflict-related matters, among which the prospects for an international conference to take place.
“As far as the United States, France and the rest of participants in Amman’s conference (on Wednesday) are concerned, the framework for Geneva 2 was clear,” another Coalition member, Khaled Khoja, told AFP.
During the “Friends of Syria” meeting in Amman, Jordan, on Wednesday, world leaders agreed on increasing pressure on Assad but the opposition remains concerned with Russia’s position.
“We would like to have guarantees particularly from the Russian side, because the Russian leadership has been defending Assad himself,” Louay Safi said.
