AhlulBayt News Agency - A new round of Syrian peace talks, unfolding as the nation's conflict marks its fifth year, opens Monday in Geneva with both sides as deadlocked as ever on a core issue: the future of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
In Paris, U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry on Sunday called the renewed talks "a moment of truth."
The talks are beginning as a fragile, 2-week-old "cessation of hostilities" holds in Syria, reducing violence by 80% to 90%, according to the U.S. State Department. The partial cease-fire represents the most sustained curb in violence since the conflict erupted in March 2011.
The main opposition bloc in Geneva, the Saudi-based High Negotiations Committee, has made it clear that it views Assad's departure as obligatory for any move toward a U.N. blueprint for a "transitional" government in Syria.
The Saudi-backed opposition negotiator and leader of Jaysh Al-Islam – Mohamad Alloush – said on Saturday that Syria’s political transition could only begin if Dr. Bashar Al-Assad was no longer president.
“We consider that the transitional period starts with the fall of Bashar al-Assad or his death,” he told reporters in Geneva, where a round of peace talks is due to begin on Monday.
“There’s no possibility to start this period with the presence of this regime or the head of this regime in the power.”
Alloush added that the recent statement by the Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Al-Mu’allem was “worthless” and that the Syrian presidency was not up for discussion at Geneva.
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