The Syrian government’s chief negotiator said on Tuesday that peace talks in Geneva could continue with other rebel groups even though the main Riyadh-backed opposition has suspended its participation.
The High Negotiations Committee (HNC), which was formed in Saudi Arabia and is considered as the main opposition bloc, did not hold a monopoly among opposition groups,” Damascus’ envoy Bashar Ja’afari told Reuters.
“If they want to boycott, they can boycott. It’s not a big problem for us because they are not the only representatives of the Syrian opposition,” he said.
The HNC, which brings together a range of political and military elements, on Monday postponed indefinitely formal negotiations.
Laying the blame on President Bashar al-Assad’s camp, it said that a fragile truce was effectively over after a surge in violence and lack of progress on humanitarian deliveries.
“The arguments used by the Saudi group are not convincing,” Ja’afari said.
Other opposition groups include the “Moscow-Astana platform” and “Cairo platform”, which the United Nations has consulted during the indirect talks but does not give the same importance to as the HNC.
“The other groups don’t share the same assessment (of events on the ground) and this is why the talks will continue as smoothly as possible,” Ja’afari said.
He accused the HNC of repeatedly creating problems since the beginning of the process and threatening to pause or adjourn the negotiations because they were waiting on instructions from their Saudi, Turkish and Qatari backers.
“It’s filibustering as you call it in United Nations’ language,” Ja’afari, who is also Damascus’ envoy to the United Nations. “They are filibustering to torpedo the whole talks.” Responding to the HNC and Western assertions that the government’s actions were behind the breakdown in negotiations, Ja’afari pointed to calls by rebel military commanders in Geneva to attack the Syrian army as evidence they were the cause.
“Those complaining about the Syrian government doing this and that are the ones who did it,” he said, adding that “radical, terrorists” elements within the HNC were dominating decision-making mechanisms.
As the Geneva talks struggled to avoid collapse, air strikes on Tuesday on a market in opposition-held northwest Syria killed about 40 people and wounded dozens, a rebel commander, rescue worker and war monitor said. Ten people were also killed in an air strike on the nearby town of Kafr Nubl.
It was not clear if the air strikes were carried out by Syrian or Russian warplanes that have been deployed to Syria to support Assad.
However, Ja’afari dismissed suggestions the truce was dead.
“The cessation of hostilities stands on its feet. It’s taking place and there are no complaints,” he said, adding that the increased fighting was “against terrorists”.
When asked whether Assad’s future should be discussed at the talks, he reiterated that only the Syrian people could decide that issue and anything else would be illegal.
“The Syrian people wouldn’t choose a U.S. president or a French president. It’s not our business. We wouldn’t decide who the Pope is. It’s not our business,” he said.
