Opposition seeks Russian support at Syria talks

GENEVA: Syria’s opposition on Monday urged Russia, a key ally of President Bashar Assad, to put pressure on Damascus to help kick-start sputtering peace talks in Geneva.
The High Negotiations Committee (HNC), the main opposition group at the UN-sponsored talks, said it expects to meet a Russian delegation Tuesday in the Swiss city.
“We sincerely hope to persuade Russia to stand by the Syrian people,” said HNC delegation chief Nasr Al-Hariri after his latest talks with UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura.
“We hope that Russia will bet on the Syrian people and will not bet on one person who has decided to destroy the whole of Syria so as to remain in power,” he added, referring to Assad.
The Geneva talks, the fourth under UN auspices and the first since last April, are struggling to get off the ground, and were not helped by suicide attacks in Syria’s third city Homs which killed dozens at the weekend.
De Mistura managed to persuade regime and opposition negotiators to sit in the same room for a symbolic opening ceremony last week, but since then he has held separate talks with the different delegations, as during previous rounds.
In Moscow, a Foreign Ministry source confirmed that Gennady Gatilov, deputy foreign minister, would meet opposition negotiators along with all sides in Geneva.
Gatilov and Sergei Vershinin, head of the ministry’s Middle East section, are both in Geneva for the 34th session of the Human Rights Council.
“In the framework of the intra-Syrian talks in Geneva we have meetings with all parties, including the opposition, which is represented by more than one group,” said a ministry source.
“There is only one objective: To make progress toward a political resolution in the spirit of (UN Security Council) Resolution 2254 … and to gain as much as possible from the cease-fire,” the source said.
In Geneva, Al-Hariri sounded more upbeat after his latest meeting with the UN envoy.
“This meeting was more positive than the one before,” he told reporters.
He added that he believed Moscow was showing signs of openness.
“It has tried to be neutral … we see an openness in their position, especially vis-a-vis the revolutionary moderate factions,” he said, referring to the moderate opposition.
A ban on mobile phones, recording devices and “offensive language” — the ground rules handed out at Syrian talks reflect the high tension in the corridors of Geneva, where peace is a long way from anyone’s lips.
De Mistura issued the orders to Syrian regime and opposition negotiators.
“Respect the others who are present in these proceedings. No one has the right to question the legitimacy of others,” he wrote in the one-page ground rules.
“Use appropriate language and behavior, and avoid making offensive, degrading, inflammatory or personal attacks, in and out of meetings,” he added.
The fact that such obvious rules have to be spelled out shows the deep personal animosity and bitterness between the two sides, after six years of bloody conflict and several previous rounds of UN talks which went nowhere.
Meanwhile, the UN Security Council will vote Tuesday on a draft resolution that would impose sanctions on Syria for the use of chemical weapons, diplomats said.
Russia has vowed to use its veto to block the measure, which would be the seventh time that Moscow has resorted to its veto power to shield its Damascus ally. The vote is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. (1630 GMT).