Turkey insists Kurds have no place at UN Syria talks

The next round of peace talks aimed at bringing an end to the five-year conflict in Syria are now due to start on Friday, a four-day delay from the original start date, Staffan de Mistura, the United Nations special envoy for Syria, said on Monday.

“There is consensus in the High Committee on being positive in our decision”, spokesman Salim al-Muslat told the Arabic news channel Arabiya al-Hadath.

Perhaps anticipating a revolt from the Syrian opposition, de Mistura on Monday predicted “a lot of posturing, a lot of walk-outs or walk-ins” in the days before the negotiations begin.

Mr Kerry dismissed the latest statements by the Syrian government and opposition as the result of tensions, but as members of the opposition increasingly feel that they are being forced into talks with a government only looking for their surrender, the best shot yet at coming to a diplomatic settlement to the war could be scuttled before it really begins. “They (rebels) enter an area, attack and return back”, said Abu Baraa al-Lathkani.

“Nobody is more concerned than Secretary Kerry about the humanitarian conditions in Syria”, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to more frankly discuss the negotiations.

“There will be a big response to these pressures”, he told Reuters, without elaborating. “This is what the HNC has laid down”, he said.

“No one has asked for or offered any political asylum”, he said, adding that Assad had promised Putin to sit down for peace talks with opposition, including armed groups, and engage “patriotic” opposition in the fight against the Islamic State group alongside the Syrian army.

“It was not comfortable for us for America – even in theory or partially – to adopt what came in the Iranian and Russian initiatives”, Zoubi said in the interview.

“We want something that puts an end to the fighting”, de Mistura said. The civil war has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions of others. But the opposition has been increasingly critical of US policy.

Kerry said any disagreements arising in the Geneva talks would be addressed by another meeting of the 20-odd member International Syria Support Group that is tentatively scheduled for February 11.

“In terms of vision, things may get faster, things may get slower, I can tell you in advance, don’t be surprised”, de Mistura said, during a press conference in Geneva Monday, when the talks were originally scheduled to begin.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday his country’s intervention had helped “turn around” the situation in Syria, “reducing the territory controlled by terrorists“.

It’s also possible that representatives from the YPG, the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, will attend the talks as part of the opposition. He also said some participants of the peace process had been “capricious” in refusing to negotiate. That is something Turkey opposes since it sees the primary Kurdish militia fighting in Syria as little more than an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), with which it is now at war. It has drawn in most world powers, with the United States leading an air campaign against Islamic State fighters that control eastern Syria and northern Iraq.