Geneva: Opposition Discusses Political Transition, Elections With U.N. Team

Opposition figures are continuing talks with U.N. negotiators despite the absence of a Syrian government delegation

The Syrian opposition participating in the talks in the Geneva 9 conference on Wednesday said that it met with the United Nations team to discuss the political transition, constitution and elections.

The announcement came in a statement by the opposition spokesman, Yahya al-Aridi, after the delegation met with the U.N. team, which was led today by Ramzy Ezzeldin, due to the absence of U.N. special envoy Staffan de Mistura for “private reasons.”

“We came to discuss the implementation of the legitimate international resolutions,” the opposition spokesman said, adding: “We discussed the political transition in depth [during the meeting today] and clearly, by putting forward material ideas.”

He said that this was “within the context of the political transition to the second basket, which is the elections and constitutional process, and the needed infrastructure for a political transition through missions, relations and aims.”

He commented on the opposition meetings with the U.N. team and the absence of the regime delegation, saying: “We are serious about the political transition, as evidenced by the engagement with the United Nations in the framework of implementing its resolutions, implementing the Geneva statement [2012] and the U.N. Resolution 2254 based on the Geneva statement with most of its items.”

Aridi continued: “Evidence of this seriousness contrasts with the other side [the Assad regime] being concerned with issues not related to politics, and is continuing with the strategy it pursued in Syria without concern for the Syrian people, who need to return to life and to a country which deserves to have peace and security.”

He stressed that the opposition delegation will continues in its negotiations, but that “it needs to be matched by seriousness from the other side.”

The spokesman expressed his belief that “the regime delegation will come to the negotiations later,” without specifying a date.

The regime delegation is absent from the current Geneva talks so far because of its rejection of the opposition’s call for the departure of President Bashar al-Assad.

This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.

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