The main Western-backed Syrian opposition group opened a three-day meeting Friday to discuss a range of issues, including a Russian initiative to hold peace talks in Moscow to broker a resolution to Syria’s civil war.
The Syrian National Coalition is also expected to elect a new president during the closed-door proceedings that opened Friday in Istanbul.
The meeting comes amid a push by Russia, a key supporter of President Bashar Assad, to try to bring the Syrian government and the opposition together in Moscow for talks to end a civil war that has killed more than 200,000 people. Russian diplomats have been shuttling between the sides in recent weeks to sound out their willingness to attend the meeting that the Kremlin has said it hopes to convene after Jan. 20.