Cairo, Asharq Al-Awsat—As Damascus said it was ready to participate in Russian-backed “preliminary consultations” in Moscow aimed at restarting peace talks next year to end the Syrian conflict, opposition Syrian National Coalition President Hadi Al-Bahra said that “no formal initiatives” for a peace plan had been submitted to the Coalition so far.
In a broad-ranging interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, the Syrian opposition chief discussed competing international peace initiatives from both Moscow and UN envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura, stressing that any peace initiative must be based on the Geneva Communique.
Syrian state-run TV on Saturday announced that Damascus is ready to participate in peace talks hosted by Russia next month, amid suggestions the talks could pave the way to restarting direct peace talks between the Assad regime and Syrian rebels. However, the president of the Syrian National Coalition—the main Western-backed Syrian opposition group—said it had not received any formal invitation from Moscow.
“Until now, we have received nothing official about a Moscow meeting. We have not received any formal or verbal invitation or any specific date,” Bahra told Asharq Al-Awsat.
Bahra acknowledged, however, that he had heard about the Moscow initiative. “During previous meetings with [Russian Deputy Foreign Minister] Mikhail Bogdanov, he informed us that his country was considering proposing the idea of a summit based on two axes: First, dialogue between the opposition . . . and [second], dialogue between the opposition and the regime.”
However, Bahra immediately affirmed that talks are already taking place within the Syrian opposition to reach a joint vision to deal with the evolving situation on the ground in the country, particularly following the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and the establishment of a US-led international coalition to combat the group. Many international observers have warned that time is running out to reach a political solution to end the Syrian conflict amid fears that ISIS will seek to exploit any power vacuum to entrench its position in Syria.