Presidential Political and Media Advisor Bouthina Shaaban said the performance of the Syrian Arab Republic's delegation at the Geneva II conference was successful, thanks to the strong faith in the homeland, the steadfastness of the leadership and the Syrian people and good preparations.
"The official delegation is still working on evaluating the first round and briefing the leadership on what took place during the talks after returning from Geneva," Shaaban said in an interview with the Syrian TV Channel on Wednesday evening.
She pointed out that the decision has not been taken yet to attend the upcoming round, clarifying that they are still waiting for directives from the leadership in this regard.
"The U.S. Ambassador, Robert Ford, was leading the coalition delegation, called 'the opposition', and it seems that those constituting the delegation have become convinced that they should send more experienced delegates, capable of facing the Syrian delegation," she added.
Shaaban said she hoped to see a national opposition that is dedicated to Syria and interested in halting bloodshed, not merely to broaden the number of the coalition delegation.
For his part, Syria's Permanent Envoy to the U.N. Bashar al-Jaafari confirmed that the Syrian official delegation was not only negotiating with the coalition delegation called 'opposition', but 13 delegations, namely the coalition delegation, the U.N. delegation represented by Lakhdar Brahimi in addition to 11 other delegations which were residing in "the hotel of coalition" and giving them their orders.
In an interview with SANA TV, Jaafari said that the mechanism which the Syrian official delegation invented unveiled the flaws of the other delegations, which had become public. The latest, he said, was the resignation of the Arab League representative Naser al-Qidwa and the talk about the U.S. Ambassador Robert Ford leaving his mission at the end of the month.
Translated and edited by The Syrian Observer
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