(Beirut) The Negotiations Committee, which represents a large part of the Syrian opposition, announced on Wednesday that it rejected the “phased” approach proposed by the UN special envoy to Syria aimed at advancing the discussions with Damascus after 11 years of conflict.
Posted at 10:18 a.m.
This declaration comes shortly after the holding this weekend of a meeting between several opposition groups whose objective was to learn from their past “mistakes” and try to unite against Bashar al-Assad, which now controls two-thirds of the country.
Weakened by internal struggles and military defeats, the political opposition in exile has so far failed to unify its ranks to present a credible alternative to the regime.
At the end of 2021, the UN special envoy to Syria Geir Pedersen said he hoped for a resumption “in the near future” and “in stages” of the discussions in Geneva under the aegis of the UN between the representatives of Damascus and the opposition.
In a statement on Wednesday, the Negotiations Committee expressed its “rejection of the step-by-step mechanism” and of “any initiative […] who does not drive […] to the full implementation of resolution 2254 aimed at achieving its main goal, namely a political transition”.
The resolution adopted by the UN Security Council in December 2015 stipulated, among other things, the revision of the Constitution and the holding of elections supervised by the UN.
The last round of talks under the aegis of the UN ended in October without progress.
“Giving encouragement to the regime after it has proven […] his rejection of the political process in Geneva will spur him to more intransigence,” the committee warned.
Accused of being cut off from reality and failing to represent the rebels, opposition groups ended up losing foreign support, as the regime regained the upper hand over rebels and jihadists, with help from Russia and Iran from 2015.
Triggered in March 2011 by the repression of pro-democracy demonstrations and initially opposing the army and the rebels, the conflict has become more complex over the years. It killed around half a million people according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and displaced millions of people.