The Geneva peace talks on the Syrian conflict may be delayed because foreign powers cannot agree on who are legitimate representatives of the opposition.
Just four days ahead of scheduled Syria peace talks in Geneva, Switzerland, the list of people who will be at those talks is still the subject of debate.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met Wednesday to discuss who would represent the Syrian opposition, but they reached no agreement – except to keep the talks on track.
While the U.S. shares the Russian position that Syrian leader Bashar Assad may stay for the time being, it and the Syrian opposition are not likely to be fond of the government-aligned “third-party” opposition figures Russia would like to see at the table.
Indeed, if Russia insists on including opposition figures seen as pro-Damascus, de facto chief negotiator for the opposition Riad Hijab has said he would not participate. As head of a Riyadh-based opposition council formed last month, Hijab insists that only he can propose candidates – and that talks can’t go on while outside powers bomb Syria.
"We cannot negotiate with the regime while there are foreign forces bombing the Syrian people," Hijab said after meeting with French President Francois Hollande. Hijab is Syria’s former prime minister and highest-profile defector from the Assad government.
Russia, on the other hand, may dismiss as “terrorists” candidates proposed by the opposition. Iran has already stated that it would not accept fighters affiliated with the Islamic State group or the Nusra Front, which is affiliated with al-Qaida. On Wednesday, the BBC reported that the opposition had selected a representative from an Islamist force to represent it at talks, seeing the choice as a means of placating opposition forces on the ground in Syria.
Opposition to groups like the Nusra Front, however, may become a point of unity.
In a meeting earlier this month, U.S. and British intelligence reportedly told the Free Syrian Army in southern Syria to “stop operations against the Syrian army and avoid periphery battles” and instead focus on battling the Nusra Front, according to Al-Akhbar, a pro-government newspaper based in Lebanon.
The FSA has been slowing down its fight against Assad’s forces in the past months. If it shifts its focus entirely to fighting the Nusra Front, it will be promised aid, including training from Western states, reported Al-Akbhar. If it doesn’t, what aid it receives may be curtailed.
Russia also approached the Amman-based Military Operations Center, which coordinates rebel activity in the south of the country.
"The Southern Front have been aware that the Jordanian authorities are in contact with Russia and possibly the Assad regime to coordinate some issues,” an anonymous FSA source to Alaraby Aljadeed. “But the (implementation) of these contracts may signal the start of a new phase, which could have negative implications.”
Some divisions of the FSA, a loose confederation of rebel forces, have allied and in some cases pledged allegiance to the Syrian Democratic Forces, a new rebel coalition promoted by the United States in part to bypass restrictions on arming the Kurdish YPG, which some see as an arm of Turkey’s PKK, which the U.S. legally considers a terrorist organization. The SDF has received weapons and ammunition from the Pentagon and its main efforts are directed against the Islamic State group and the Nusra Front, not the Syrian government.
On Wednesday, Al Jazeera reported that the YPG had ceded control over an airport in its territory to the U.S. military, which reportedly plans to use it as a base to re-supply the SDF.
The United Nations has yet to send invitations to representatives for the upcoming talks,and its envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, told CNN on Wednesday that the talks may be delayed.
Two opposition representatives have already been identified, and according to the New York Times, they hold more credibility among rebels than those picked for talks two years ago.
