AMMAN — Syrian rebel negotiator Mohammad Alloush said on Monday he would head the rebel delegation to the peace talks backed by Russia and Turkey in Kazakhastan, saying this was to “neutralize the criminal role “ of Iran in the Syrian conflict.
Alloush, a former senior negotiator with the Higher Negotiations Committee during past rounds of UN-sponsored peace talks in Geneva, said their participation was needed to hold back Iran’s militias fighting in Syria.
The talks, beginning on Jan. 23 in the Kazakh capital Astana, are set to build on a nationwide truce that has largely held despite escalating violence across several battlefronts in recent days.
If the Astana meetings are successful, they could augur well for fresh UN-hosted negotiations on the conflict next month in Geneva. “All the rebel groups are going (to Astana). Everyone has agreed,” said Alloush.
“Astana is a process to end the bloodletting by the regime and its allies. We want to end this series of crimes,” he said.
Ahmad Al-Othman from the Sultan Murad faction also told AFP that “the rebel groups have decided to go to the talks.”
Sources from the opposition and the regime said the talks would “probably” be face-to-face.
Several rounds of peace talks held by the United Nations have failed to produce a political solution to the conflict.
Ahmad Ramadan, from the leading National Coalition opposition group, said the Astana talks would aim to reinforce the truce “while the details of the political process will be left to Geneva.”
“Despite all the truce violations, what pushed us to agree to attend was the fact that the agenda will be focused on the ceasefire only,” said Osama Abu Zeid, a legal adviser to rebel groups.
The opposition’s delegation to Astana “will be only military,” but would be consulting with “a team of legal and political advisers” from the High Negotiations Committee, he said.
The HNC is the main umbrella group for Syria’s opposition factions, negotiating on their behalf last year in Geneva.
US President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team has been invited to take part, but has not yet officially responded.
More than 310,000 people have been killed and millions have fled their homes since protests erupted against Assad’s rule in the spring of 2011.
Over the years, the conflict has also witnessed the rise to prominence of terror groups like Daesh.
Daesh on Monday pressed their brutal offensive around the key eastern city of Deir Ezzor.
“IS (Daesh) has resorted to heavy use of infiltrators and on huge reinforcements from Raqa and western parts of Deir Ezzor province,” the source said.
Around 200,000 people live in Deir Ezzor city, which has been besieged by Daesh since early 2015 and is the capital of the oil-rich province of the same name.
