by Reuters and Israel Hayom Staff
Riyadh meeting offers prospect of forging a more united opposition better able to negotiate with the Syrian regime • Shiite Iran, an archrival of Sunni Saudi Arabia, says meeting is aimed at harming the Vienna peace talks and will cause their failure.
Saudi Arabia's King Salman [Archive]
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Photo credit: AP  |
A Syrian opposition meeting due to begin in
Saudi Arabia on Tuesday marks the most serious effort yet to unify
Syrian President Bashar Assad's fragmented enemies, a step seen as vital
to peace talks sought by world powers but which has riled Iran.
While the outlook for the political track
recently launched in Vienna appears bleak -- international divisions
over Assad persist and the war in Syria has escalated -- the Riyadh
meeting offers the prospect of forging a more united opposition better
able to negotiate with the government.
Assad's opponents and the governments that
back them see it as a long-overdue step toward ending the disunity that
has obstructed diplomacy: the Turkish-based political opposition that
led the last round of failed peace talks two years ago was widely
criticized as out of touch with forces on the ground.
The Riyadh meeting is meant to bring rebels, or those who represent them, to the table when negotiations begin.
Yet Iran, whose Shiite-led government is an
archrival of the Sunni kingdom of Saudi Arabia, has said the meeting is
aimed at harming the Vienna peace talks and would cause their failure.
The Vienna process envisages formal talks between the Syrian government
and the opposition by Jan. 1.
The participants invited to Riyadh include
powerful Islamist factions Islam Army and Ahrar ash-Sham -- a group
whose founders had links to al-Qaida. Ahrar ash-Sham still fights
alongside the Nusra Front, al-Qaida's Syrian wing, while espousing a
nationalist agenda.
Islam Army said in a statement that its
commander, Zahran Alloush, would not attend because the group had lost
control of the road he had been planning to use to exit the area in the
Damascus suburbs where the group is based. Members of Islam Army's
political office will attend instead, it said.
A dozen Free Syrian Army rebel groups will
also attend, including groups vetted by the United States that have
received foreign military aid. They include recipients of U.S.-made
anti-tank missiles supplied to rebels in larger quantities since Russia
intervened militarily on Assad's side on Sept. 30.
"It is the first time there is a meeting in
Saudi [Arabia] -- a meeting of soldiers and politicians -- and it has a
greater chance of success because Saudi [Arabia] is hosting it," said
the head of one of the FSA groups.
"Saudi [Arabia] is a pivotal state in the
region and for it to take this step -- to host a conference of the
Syrian opposition factions -- certainly something real will result from
it."
He declined to be named because of political
sensitivities surrounding the conference. Underlining the complexities,
media access to the conference is expected to be highly restricted. The
initial list of 65 invitees, sources familiar with arrangements said,
has grown to many more than that.
Even with backing from Saudi Arabia, the
United States and others, analysts still see scope for friction in
Riyadh, notably between groups battling to unseat Assad and members of
the Damascus-based opposition who are expected to attend.
"Trying to get those two poles to agree to the
same platform and to negotiate as one unit is going to prove very
difficult if not impossible, it's not entirely clear to me whether it is
even advisable," said Noah Bonsey, a senior analyst with the
International Crisis Group.
A Syrian Kurdish group that has taken over
wide areas of northern Syria and which has fought Islamic State with
U.S. help meanwhile says it has not been invited to the talks at all.
One of the Kurdish-run enclaves in Syria declared the Saudi talks
"doomed to fail" without Kurdish involvement.
All the rebels attending the meeting are
enemies of Islamic State, which controls swathes of eastern Syria seized
mostly from other insurgent groups. The Nusra Front, listed as a
terrorist group by the United States, has also not been invited.
A diplomat who tracks Syria said Russia would
object to the participation of both Islam Army and Ahrar ash-Sham due
its links to the Nusra Front and al-Qaida. "The Iranians feel
uncomfortable with the Saudis leading," the diplomat added.
"The aim of agreeing the parameters of negotiations with the regime is hard to achieve," he added.
But the spokesman for one of the FSA groups due to attend said Ahrar ash-Sham were part of the Syrian people.
"We did not take part in conferences before, but we hope
that this conference will be important for the future of Syria and
ending the war," said Abu Ghaith al-Shami of Alwiyat Seif al-Sham, which
operates in southern Syria.
Reuters and Israel Hayom Staff
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=30259
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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