Syrian Hmeymim Opposition Urges New Format of Peace Talks

The settlement of the Syrian conflict needs a dialogue conference preferably to be held in Damascus instead of another round of proximity talks in Geneva, Tarek Ahmad, a member of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) and the internal opposition's so-called Hmeymim group, told Sputnik on Wednesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Earlier in the day Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Sputnik that the intra-Syrian talks in Geneva are set to begin this month where Special UN Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura will "formulate directions for further discussions."

"My suggestion and our group’s suggestion is that there should be a dialogue process which is the right format, and not the negotiation process in Geneva," Ahmad said.

The previous round of the intra-Syrian talks was held in Geneva in April, with the participation of the Damascus delegation as well as three opposition groups — the Riyadh-formed High Negotiations Committee (HNC), the Moscow-Cairo and the Hmeimim groups — started on April 13 with the focus on the topics of political transition, governance and the constitution.

"The dialogue process should be a national dialogue conference which can gather 1000 representatives of different Syrian groups and different Syrian parties, and associations of the civil society, as well as the government. We prefer to hold in Damascus…I don't see any kind of format which can be done by Mr. de Mistura and his team, and which can gather the different teams into one negotiating party and which can achieve the results which he is speaking about," Ahmad said.

De Mistura said at a final press conference after the conclusion of the talks that "there has been some progress at this round," and that ideas on political transition from all delegations to the talks were collected. On Tuesday, de Mistura said that the renewal of the Intra-Syrian talks hinges on Aleppo joining a ceasefire regime in Syria.