Head of the National Coordination Commission (NCC) Hassan Abdulazim said no deadline has been set for Geneva II, in an interview with the semi-official al-Watan newspaper published Wednesday.
"There is a meeting between the U.S Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov and the international community at the end of the month in order to determine the deadline," he said.
"In addition, the U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi is touring the region and will visit Damascus and certainly he is informed of the final deadline."
Abdulazim said that initially the conference was scheduled in the last ten days of November, stressing that "the conference schedule, however, is up to the Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban ki-Moon."
Abdulazim revealed that the NCC had formed a delegation of ten people to go to Geneva.
"We will participate according to the limit of the number of people allowed. If the limit is ten members, then ten members will attend. If it is less, the required number will go and the rest will stay for consultations and communications," he said.
On whether other opposition parties inside Syria will be included, Abdulazim said: "Initially we had information that there are three opposition delegations, from the NCC, the Syrian National Coalition and the Kurdish Higher Commission, in addition to the regime delegation. Other parties are not identified yet, and if other delegations will be added later, we will be informed."
Abdulazim denied any communications between the NCC and the Coalition ahead of the conference.
"There are no communications between us and the Coalition because they are abroad, but in the NCC we see that there should be some sort of agreement on a unified delegation from the opposition with a unified vision, objectives and negotiating mechanism," he told al-Watan.
Commenting on the lack of consensus among the opoposition, Abdulazim said: "The issue requires a decision from the Coalition on a political solution to attend Geneva II. Those in the Coalition who are betting so far on the continuation of armed fighting do not want to attend Geneva II and do not want negotiation and dialogue," he said, pointing out disagreements between the components of the Coalition on the political solution and participation in the conference.
On the internal opposition, Abdulazim said "there is no disagreement in the opposition inside at all except a dispute about the position of the Free Syrian Army, because it mostly lost its confidence in the opposition abroad. When it is shown that there is seriousness among the regional and international groups for Geneva II, I think most of them will choose a political solution and a peaceful transition of power and spare Syria further bloodshed and devastation," he said.
"In any case, when the date of Geneva II is decisively set by the United Nations and parties are invited to attend, then there will be an arrangement of the national democratic opposition, civil and armed, who choose a political solution. They are the majority who will participate in Geneva II to execute the agreement at Geneva I. Those who choose to continue fighting and violence, chaos and armed conflict, will refuse to attend Geneva and thus there will be a process to arrange the political and military opposition at home and abroad."
Abdulazim added that the People's Front for Liberation and Change, consisting of the Peoples' Will Party and Syrian National Party "is part of the power in control of the country and that their role should be considered as part of the regime delegation."
"It is true that they were not in power previously, but for more than a year and a half they chose to be in the government and parliament," he said.
Abdulazim said that the Coalition cannot refuse to attend Geneva II, or to reject the Russian-American agreement.
"It will adapt to it," he said. "There are parties in the Coalition that will adopt a political solution and other parties that will reject it because of the attitude of some Arab or regional powers which will remain outside Geneva. But this will not affect the participation of those who want a political solution at Geneva II".
Translated and edited by The Syrian Observer
......
