"19 groups of the Syrian opposition that are not capable of operating without external support, "rejected" the carrying out of Geneva-2. That means that their sponsors are interested in disruption," quoted Pushkov's message in Twitter Interfax.
The fact that nineteen Syrian rebel groups rejected the offer to participate in an international meeting on Syria the Geneva-2 came from Ahmad Issa al-Sheikh’s statement, who is the head of the Islamist group "Sakyur al-Sham."
"We declare that our participation in the conference "Geneva-2" will never be the choice of our people or our revolutionary demand" says in the statement. "We believe that the meeting is another plot to put an end to our revolution", said Al-Sheikh. According to the head of the Islamist group "Sakyur al-Sham", anyone who goes to the conference will be regarded as a traitor and be punished. "Geneva-2" Meeting will be, presumably, held in late November. Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary General should declare the final date.
Nineteen Islamist groups fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad have rejected outright a mooted US-Russian peace initiative for Syria dubbed Geneva 2, a statement said.
"We announce that the Geneva 2 conference is not, nor will it ever be our people's choice or our revolution's demand," the groups said in a late Saturday statement read in an online video by Ahmad Eissa al-Sheikh, chief of the Suqur al-Sham chief.
"We consider it just another part of the conspiracy to throw our revolution off track and to abort it."
The statement also warned that anyone who went to such talks would be committing "treason, and ... would have to answer for it before our courts".
The statement comes weeks after dozens of major rebel groups across Syria said the Western-backed opposition umbrella grouping the National Coalition had "failed".
The Geneva talks slated for next month aim to bring rebel and regime representatives to the table in a bid to seek a negotiated end to the Syrian conflict, which according to a rights group has claimed more than 115,000 lives since it erupted in March 2011.
The National Coalition is to meet on November 9 to decide whether to take part in the peace talks but has stated emphatically it will only attend if there are guarantees they Assad will step down.
- Assad for his part has said "the factors are not yet in place" for such talks, and he has repeatedly rejected negotiations with any group with ties to the rebels or to foreign states.
Among the signatories to Saturday's statement are powerful Islamist groups Liwa al-Tawhid, Ahrar al-Sham, Suqur al-Sham and Ahfad al-Rasul, which has fought against Al-Qaeda-affiliated fighters in Syria.
voiceofrussia.com
27/10/13
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UN Security Council agrees to rid Syria of chemical weapons. Endorses peace process. (4 video UN 27/9/13)
Chemical Weapons Must Be Seized From Syria Rebels – Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu
Lavrov: ‘Either secure Syria's chemical weapons, or arm its rebels’ (EXCLUSIVE RT)
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Brahimi to visit Damascus on 28th October to discuss “Geneva – 2” ...
ReplyDeleteSpecial Envoy of the UN and of the Arab League on Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi is expected to arrive in Syria on Monday, reports the Lebanese newspaper “Daily Star” on Sunday, citing a source in the government of Syria.
Brahimi is due to arrive on Monday to discuss preparations for the “Geneva -2”, said the source on conditions of anonymity. This will be the first visit of a UN official to Syria since December of last year. The international conference on Syria - “Geneva- 2” is scheduled for late November. The date of its convening will be declared by UN Secretary General Ban K-Moon.
Read more: http://indian.ruvr.ru/news/2013_10_27/Brahimi-Damascus-Geneva-2/
27/10/13
Russia sees recent Syrian opposition moves as provocative...
ReplyDeleteMOSCOW, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- The demands set by the Syrian opposition as preconditions for its participation in the Geneva-II peace conference were "unalloyed provocation," Russia Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday.
"The regime of (Syrian President Bashar) al-Assad repeatedly confirmed its readiness to participate in the Geneva-II conference. From opposition we hear only about more preconditions," Lavrov told reporters after talks with his New Zealand counterpart Murray McCully.
"If it is made to provoke (Assad's) regime for setting its own preconditions, this is an unalloyed provocation," he said.
Leader of the Syrian National Coalition (SNC) Ahmad Jarba said Sunday that his group would not attend the conference if Iran is invited and if there is not a strict timetable for Assad to leave office.
Moscow insisted that Iran must participate in the early stages of Geneva-II as Teheran has been an influential outside player in the Syrian conflict.
Lavrov noted that Jarba's statement meant that influence of the Western-backed SNC has waned among Assad's opponents. "Real power within the camp of Assad's opponents shifts to other people," he said.
The minister added that those who call for a settlement of the humanitarian problem in Syria in the first place wanted to oust Assad, not to solve the crisis.
"This is an attempt to distract attention from their inability to bring the opposition to Geneva conference," the Interfax news agency quoted Lavrov as saying.
http://english.cntv.cn/20131105/105379.shtml
5/11/13
Next Russia-US-UN meeting on Geneva-2 conference to take place on November 25...
ReplyDeleteGENEVA, November 5 (Itar-Tass) - A next meeting in the format of Russia, the United States and the United Nations on the preparation of an international conference on Syria, Geneva-2, will be held on November 25, Special Envoy of the United Nations Organization and the League of Arab State on Syria Lakhdar Brahimi said on Tuesday.
http://www.itar-tass.com/c32/942969.html
5/11/13
Key Syrian opposition bloc rejects Geneva II...
ReplyDeleteThe Syrian National Council, a key group within Syria’s mainstream opposition National Coalition, reaffirmed on Friday it will not attend the “Geneva II” peace talks scheduled for later this month in Switzerland.
“After meetings with many international delegations in recent weeks... the Syrian National Council (SNC) confirms it sees no reason to attend the Geneva conference,” SNC member Samir Nashar told Agence France-Presse.
The talks were originally scheduled to be held in the Swiss city of Geneva but have been moved to nearby Montreux and a Jan. 22 date for the peace talks has been set.
Although the National Coalition which has still not taken a definitive decision, Nashar forecast that the umbrella organization would similarly not show up.
The statement reiterates an earlier announcement by SNC president George Sabra in October that the group had taken a “firm decision” not to attend the talks. Sabra had also said the SNC would withdraw from the National Coalition if it decided to attend.
The group has long insisted that it refuses to negotiate until President Bashar al-Assad’s regime exits power.
Nashar said the decision was taken after many meetings, including with the “Friends of Syria” grouping of states that support the opposition, U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi and the Russian foreign ministry...................http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2014/01/04/Syrian-opposition-rejects-Geneva-peace-talks-.html
4/1/14
Rocket fired from Syria kills 7 in Lebanese border town....
ReplyDeleteRocket fire into the Lebanese border town of Arsal killed at least seven people and wounded 15 on Jan. 17, Lebanon's state news agency said, in one of several such salvoes to hit towns bordering war-torn Syria.
At least 10 rockets have struck Lebanese frontier areas, according to local security sources, in further spillover from Syria's civil war that has raised tensions across Lebanon.
Lebanon, itself shattered by civil war from 1975 to 1990, has been struggling to keep itself out of the nearly three-year conflict raging in its much larger neighbour, with more than 100,000 people killed there.
But with sectarian sympathies aligning different Lebanese groups with Syria's warring parties, spillover has become increasingly frequent. Lebanon is now coping with increased car bombings, some of them hitting the heart of the capital Beirut.
The National News Agency said a single rocket caused the death toll in Arsal, an area sympathetic to the mostly Sunni Muslim rebels seeking to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
A Lebanese national security source said there were 8 casualties from two rockets in Arsal, but could not confirm how many were dead or wounded. Security sources inside the town said seven rockets crashed around Arsal, and that a field clinic and a Syrian refugee camp were both hit.
The security source said that a Syrian fighter jet was targeting a town on the Syrian side of the frontier, but was not the source of the rocket fire.
Rockets also crashed into areas around the northern Lebanese border town of Hermel. One hit inside Hermel but caused no major damage, while two more rockets fell in neighbouring villages, without reported casualties.
Hermel is supportive of Lebanon's powerful Shiite Muslim militant movement Hezbollah, which has been fighting in Syria on the side of Assad, himself from the minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
A day earlier, Hermel, which is regularly the target of rocket and mortar attacks from Syrian rebels, suffered its first car bomb attack.
The attack, which killed four people including a suicide bomber inside the car, was claimed by the Lebanese branch of the al-Nusra Front, the Syrian rebel group affiliated with al-Qaeda. It has not been possible to verify the claim.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/rocket-fired-from-syria-kills-7-in-lebanese-border-town.aspx?pageID=238&nID=61189&NewsCatID=352
17/1/14