Head of the opposition’s negotiations delegation to Geneva Asa’ad Alzoabi said that the US and Russia are unable to control the situation in Syria.
Civil defense teams said that 10 people, including women and children, were killed in airstrikes by regime forces on the town of Binnish in rural Idlib on Tuesday.
In an interview with Sky News Arabia TV channel on Wednesday, Alzoabi criticized the United Nations suggestion to resume negotiations in Geneva. “Negotiations were suspended because of the repeated breaches of the truce by the Assad regime,” he said.
The UN envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura earlier said that the Geneva talks would be resumed on May 17. Spokesman for the United Nations envoy Ahmad Fawzi said that the United Nations had received positive responses from Moscow and Washington regarding the resumption of negotiations in Geneva.
General Coordinator of the opposition’s High Negotiations Committee Riad Hijab on Tuesday met with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir in Paris.
The meeting discussed the latest developments in Syria, including international efforts to stop violations against the Syrian people; the reactivation of the “cessation of hostilities” agreement and making sure humanitarian aid is delivered to the Syrian people.
In a statement issued earlier on Tuesday following his meeting with the Friends of the Syrian People Group in Paris on Monday, Hijab said that for the political process to continue it is essential to immediately and unconditionally implement the relevant UN Security Council resolutions on Syria.
Hijab stressed that negotiations cannot be resumed without “ending violence, ending the suffering of the Syrian people, lifting the sieges, delivering aid to those in need, releasing detainees, and stopping executions and other arbitrary measures practiced against civilians by the Assad regime.”
Hijab underscored the importance of “adopting a new strategy by the United Nations to push the peace process forward through employing a more strict policy to address the violations perpetrated by the regime of Bashar al-Assad and its allies.” (Source: Syrian Coalition + Agencies)
