Al Arabiya with Reuters, 22 Oct 2013 – Syrian National Coalition President Ahmad Jarba will tell Arab and Western allies on Tuesday that opposition will not take part in planned peace talks in Geneva unless their objective is President Bashar al-Assad’s removal from power.
According to a speech Jarba will make to a Friends of Syria meeting in London, the opposition president said the Syrian opposition risks losing credibility if it bends to international pressure to go to Geneva without achieving the uprising’s goal of ousting Assad, according to Reuters.
“The people will not believe us and will regard us as traitors to the revolution and to the blood of the rebels,” reads the text.
Strong request
Western nations and their allies in the Middle East strongly asked the Syrian National Coalition on Tuesday to join the “Geneva 2” talks, although Assad has made clear he has no intention of stepping down.
“Geneva cannot succeed and we cannot take part if it allows Assad to gain more time to spill the blood of our people while the world looks on,” said Jarba in the text, adding that “the Sultan must leave,” in a reference to Assad.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague, hosting the meeting of 11 nations, previously stressed the important that many factions of Western-backed Syrian opposition groups join the talks.
