Syrian opposition leader denies forming new body to negotiate with Syrian regime

The former president of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, Moaz Al-Khatib, denied on Wednesday media reports claiming that several Syrian opposition figures are forming a new political entity to negotiate with the Syrian regime under Egyptian auspices.

Anadolu news agency reported that Al-Khatib posted a statement on the social networking site Facebook saying that the meeting between Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmi and several Syrian independent opposition figures this week did not address forming a new political entity and there is no political project with anyone, referring to the Egyptian side. He pointed out that anything published suggesting otherwise is “untrue”.

Fahmi’s meeting in Cairo on Sunday with Khatib and members of the national opposition coordinating body, including Aref Dalila, Haytham Manna, former member of the Syrian opposition coalition Walid Al-Bunni and Syrian actor Jamal Suleiman, has raised considerable speculations by Arab and Syrian opposition media about their intention to form a new political entity of the Syrian opposition under Egyptian auspices to lead negotiations with the regime of Bashar Al-Assad after the failure of the Geneva II talks.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying the meeting aimed to “listen to the Syrian figures’ views on how to solve the Syrian crisis, which started three years ago, and the prospects for reviving efforts to reach a political solution to the conflict after the Geneva II talks have hit an impasse and there is a need to move the Arab and international role more actively to resolve this vital file for Arab national security”.

Khatib pointed out that the meeting addressed the need to form an Arab incubator consisting of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt, as well as Turkey, to discuss stopping the bloodshed in Syria.

Khatib said the Egyptian foreign ministry has confirmed it supports any solution to save Syria and that Egypt “is not a party with anyone and welcomes uniting the opposition”.

Khatib pointed out that the meeting also addressed the situation of the Syrian refugees in Egypt, estimated to be about 320,000, and the need for action by the Egyptian government to facilitate their situation, which Minister Fahmi promised to do.

Khatib, who is affiliated with the moderate Islamic trend, called last year to engage in dialogue with the Syrian regime, angering members of the Syrian opposition who pressured him to resign his post as head of the coalition in March 2013. However, the Syrian coalition subsequently entered into direct negotiations with the regime during Geneva II talks under international pressure earlier this year.

The second round of Geneva II talks concluded in mid-February without achieving any progress towards finding a political solution to the Syrian crisis as announced by international envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi, who resigned from his role this week.

The regime of Bashar Al-Assad in Syria accuses regional and international parties of a conspiracy to oust his government from power while the opposition says it seeks to end more than 40 years of rule by the Al-Assad family and to establish a democratic system based on the devolution of power.

The fighting between regime forces and the opposition has claimed the lives of more than 162,000 people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, and displaced approximately nine million others, according to the United Nations figures.