BEIRUT — Syrian rebels and activists are reporting intensified fighting in the country’s north and center, while a chief opposition negotiator says the conditions on the ground are not conducive to a political process.
The fighting in rural parts of the northern Latakia province, a government stronghold, and in the central Hama and Homs provinces Tuesday comes a day after the Syrian opposition said it is pausing its formal participation in the Geneva talks because of what it said were hundreds of government violations of a cease-fire agreement over two months.
Riad Hijab, the head of the Syrian opposition coalition, said on his Twitter account that government and allied forces target residential areas. He said conditions on the ground are not “conducive” to go on with the political talks.
The postponement of Syria peace talks by the opposition is indefinite, with any resumption dependent on “correcting the path of the negotiations” and events on the ground, a senior opposition official said on Tuesday.
“There is no date, the date is ... is the implementation of matters on the ground, and likewise the correction of the path of negotiations. All the while that does not happen, the time period will remain open,” George Sabra told Orient TV.
The opposition also had “big complaints” about US policy which he said sought continued talks “without us obtaining anything real,” he said. He called on international powers to supply Syrians with the means to defend themselves.
With fighting surging around Syria’s second city Aleppo and negotiations in Geneva stalled over the fate of President Bashar Al-Assad, the opposition said they had had enough.
“Since these talks began in Geneva, the Assad regime has worsened the situation on the ground,” Salem Al-Meslet of the main opposition High Negotiations Committee said in a statement.
The group said the talks must be placed on “brief hold in order to end the Assad regime’s truce violations,” accusing the regime of more than 2,000 violations of the ceasefire since it began on Feb. 27.
“The HNC remains fully committed to the political process and establishing peace through diplomacy,” Meslet said. “We remain in Geneva ready to engage in serious talks.”
HNC coordinator Riad Hijab said earlier it was “unacceptable” for the negotiations to continue while Assad’s regime continues to “bombard and starve civilians” in Syria.
But UN peace envoy Staffan de Mistura insisted the ongoing round of indirect discussions, which began on April 13, would continue through the week as planned.
The HNC may continue to meet UN staff at their hotel “to pursue technical discussions,” including on a political transition in Syria, de Mistura said.
