Syrian opposition not in Geneva on the day of peace talks


              Camera tripods sit in front the United Nations building before the planned beginning of negotiations between the Syrian government and the opposition in Geneva, Switzerland, Friday, Jan.  29, 2016. (Martial Trezzini/Keystone via AP)
Camera tripods sit in front the United Nations building before the planned beginning of negotiations between the Syrian government and the opposition in Geneva, Switzerland, Friday, Jan. 29, 2016. (Martial Trezzini/Keystone via AP)

GENEVA (AP) - The main Syrian opposition group is staying away from peace talks until they get a response to their demands from the United Nations, opposition figures said as a U.N. official said the talks will begin in Geneva as planned on Friday.

The Syrian government's delegation is expected to show up later in the day while the opposition is facing ongoing disputes over which parties will attend.

The main Syrian opposition group, known as the High Negotiations Committee, or HNC, said it was still waiting for an official response from the United Nations about a list of concerns.

U.N. spokesman Ahmad Fawzi told reporters that the talks will start in Geneva on Friday adding that he has no further information about who would be participating and exactly when the talks would begin.

U.N. special envoy to Syria, "Staffan de Mistura plans to go ahead as planned. I don't have times or locations," Fawzi said. "We don't have a list of participants but there will be more clarity later today."

Ahmad Ramadan, a senior official with the Syrian National Coalition, said the opposition is holding on to its decision to boycott the talks until it receives assurances on the implementation of U.N. Security Council resolutions on lifting the sieges on rebel held areas and halting bombardment of civilians in Syria.

"There cannot be any negotiations as long as the humanitarian issues have not been discussed or implemented," he said.

Basma Kodmani, a member of the opposition's negotiations team, said the HNC is now studying whether the opposition's delegation will come to Geneva to raise these concerns with the U.N. officials or stay in Saudi Arabia.

Ramadan said that de Mistura sent a letter on Thursday to the head of the HNC, Riad Hijab, which was deemed unsatisfactory. He said the U.N. envoy wrote that the opposition's demands were reasonable and that humanitarian issues should be "above negotiations," but that he was powerless to implement them himself, adding that negotiations were the best way to force everyone to implement those resolutions.

On Thursday, Hijab told the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya TV that they might come to Geneva but will not enter the negotiations rooms unless the demands are met.

"Those who cannot achieve humanitarian demands of the Syrian people will not be able to achieve political transition in Syria," Hijab said.

A Western diplomat in close contact with the SNC said in Geneva that "their (HNC) main message to us has been while we are under sustained attack by Russia and the regime and other states and militants and other groups we cannot justify to Syrians why we are going."

"They understand the risk to not attending any process which has international support or oversight but at the same time they are acutely aware of the risk of going to a negotiations which is not on terms favorable to them or their communities," said the diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on behalf of the opposition.

"We tell them the reason to come here is not to hand the Assad regime a propaganda victory," he said.

De Mistura said Thursday that the peace talks he plans to launch in Geneva "in the next few days" are an opportunity not to be missed.

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Associated Press writer Zeina Karam in Beirut contributed to this report.

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