Syria opposition delays decision on peace talks until January 17

Syria's exiled opposition postponed until January 17 its decision on whether to take part in UN-hosted peace talks in Switzerland, following two days of heated debate in Turkey, members said. The general assembly of the mainstream opposition National Coalition decided to suspend its debate and meet again in the Turkish commercial hub of Istanbul on January 17, just five days before the peace conference is to take place near Geneva, they said, Voice of Russia reported. "The debates were very heated among the different groups that make up the coalition. It was not possible to take a decision," a source close to the opposition said. The Syrian National Council, the main component of the coalition, had said Friday it would boycott the conference slated to start in Montreaux on January 22. The SNC has long said it will not negotiate until President Bashar al-Assad's regime is toppled. During its last general assembly in November, the coalition said after heated debate that it was ready to take part in the peace conference along with delegates from Assad's government. In a statement at the time, the National Coalition, under pressure from Arab and western allies, said it would take part in the peace talks "on the basis of the full transfer of power." On Tuesday, Syrian information minister said contrary to western intelligence claims, all groups fighting against Syrian army now are ‘terrorist groups’ and no one should expect a transitional government following talks between sides of the Syrian conflict. Speaking at a news conference in Syrian capital Damascus, Omran al-Zoubi said, "foreign intelligence services try to say that there are moderate and extremist terrorism in Syria; there are numerous documents and evidence proving that they are all terrorist groups and the Syrian government and army are fighting against terrorism", Al-Alam reported. "Aside from their different names, they have no other difference; all you here such as Daesh (The Al-Qaeda’s Islamic State of Iraq and Levant) and others are terrorist groups," he added. Speaking on a long-awaited peace conference dubbed as ‘Geneva 2’ aiming to find a solution to end the deadly crisis in Syria, al-Zoubi said, "any agreement in Geneva 2 will be put on a referendum among Syrian people, because any deal without consensus of all Syrian people is worthless". He further said there will be no transitional government in Syria following the talks, a controversial pre-condition set by the foreign-backed Syrian opposition for attending the conference. The Syrian minister said, "I recommend all in the opposition and others to read the Geneva statement carefully; It is going to be result of a Syrian-Syrian talk. About other countries’ presence in the internationally-brokered talks, al-Zoubi said, "We definitely want Iran present in the conference at the same level the other countries are."