Roundup: Syrian peace talks in Geneva at risk due to opposition preconditions

Even though the long-awaited internationally-backed talks on the Syrian crisis were planned to kick off on Friday, the opposition preconditions overshadow the prospects of the conference, analysts said.

Ahead of the negotiations, which were deemed by the UN as the "could be last chance for peace," the Syrian opposition, which has many loosely-organized factions, placed a number of preconditions.

Ending their meetings in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, opposition groups failed to reach a final decision over whether they would participate in Syrian peace talks in Geneva.

They said that they would continue to wait for the UN response of their demands.

It demanded bringing the Syrian army operations against rebel-held areas to a halt, adopting the communique of the 2012 Geneva meeting, which calls for a political transition in Syria, and basing the upcoming negotiations on the 2013 UN resolution no. 2118, which calls for forming a transitional governing body exercising full executive powers, which could include members of the present government and the opposition and other groups and shall be formed on the basis of mutual consent.

The Saudi-backed High Negotiations Committee for opposition groups, which met in Riyadh on Thursday, said the opposition group would not attend the negotiations in Geneva until an agreement is reached on aid entering besieged towns across Syria.

Riad Hijab, coordinator of the High Negotiations Committee, said that aid access was a precondition of the group attending.

"Tomorrow we won't be in Geneva. We could go there, but we will not enter the negotiating room if our demands aren't met," he told the Saudi-funded Al-Arabiya TV.

The Syrian government, during the pervious two rounds of talks in Geneva that ended without results, said the opposition must not place preconditions, noting that any issue should be subject to negotiations.

The U.S. State Department said Wednesday the Syrian opposition should participate in the peace talks scheduled to begin on Friday in Geneva "without preconditions."

At a press briefing, State Department spokesman Mark Toner called on the Syrian opposition to seize "a historic opportunity" to go to Geneva and propose practical ways to implement a cease-fire, humanitarian access and other confidence-building measures.

"We believe it should seize this opportunity to test the regime's willingness and intentions and expose before the entire world which parties are serious about a potential peaceful political transition in Syria and which are not," Toner said.

Ahmad al-Shirawi, a Syrian university professor, told Xinhua that the division among the opposition groups is still in place even as the conference is around the corner, adding that this is an indication that the opposition is not going to the conference to negotiate a solution to the Syrian crisis, but to obtain political gains.

"Such opposition is the one placing hurdles in the face of the conference because it is losing ground as the Syrian army is progressing on ground, especially in Latakia city and Aleppo as well as in Daraa," he said.

He stressed that the Russians and the Americans are working hard to make the conference happening.

Shirawi expressed pessimism on the outlooks of such a meeting at the level of the political solution and at the level of bringing the violence in the country to a halt due to the defragmented opposition, much of which don't have weight on ground, amid the influence of the Islamic State (IS) and the Nusra Front.

"The opposition is going to the meeting with zero consensus, let alone a united stance," he said, adding that the opposition groups are going to try to buy time in the hope of tilting the situation on ground in favor of their loosely organized militant group, known as the Free Syrian Army.

Hayan Salman, assistant of the Syrian Economy Minister, told Xinhua the opposition is working to make the conference a failure particularly after the achievement of the Syrian army, which is making strikes against key rebel strongholds across the country backed by the Russian air force.

For his part, Munther Khadam, a member in the locally-based National Coordination Body (NCB) opposition group, urged for the expansion of the opposition delegation.

He pointed out that the situation in Syria is extremely complicated due to the international interference in the crisis, noting, however, that the recent diplomatic flurry indicates that there is an understanding between Russia and the U.S. regarding holding the conference and attempting to bring the crisis to an end.

Just hours ahead of the conference, which will not be a face-to-face dialogue, confusion is the title, with no clear list of who from the opposition will come.

On the meeting eve, UN envoy Staffan de Mistura said in a video message to the Syrian people that the talks could be their country's last chance for peace after a civil war that has seen more than 260,000 people dead and forced have of the country's 23 million population from their homes. Endit