Parties to Syrian Conflict Are to Talk After Resolution 2254 Implemented

Both parties to Syrian conflict: Syrian opposition and the government in Damascus would agree with the UN Security Council resolution 2254 full implementation, Mohammed Alloush, the chief negotiator of the Syrian opposition's High Negotiations Committee (HNC), told Sputnik.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The Syrian opposition would agree to hold direct talks with the government in Damascus in case of the full implementation of the UN Security Council resolution 2254 by the latter, Mohammed Alloush, the chief negotiator of the Syrian opposition's High Negotiations Committee (HNC), told Sputnik in an interview.

A new round of intra-Syrian proximity talks started in Geneva on Wednesday. According to UN Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, this round of talks will entail discussions on the topics of political transition, governance, and the constitution.

"We are ready to hold direct negotiations in the case of the full Geneva communique and Resolution 2254 implementation, initially through the formation of a transitional governing body with all legislative and executive powers. And not only executive," Alloush said. "We have no problems to go to the negotiations. But this issue is a priority on the agenda of the talks," he added.

Alloush pointed out that the negotiations involved a dialogue on the formation of the transitional authority, however, the Syrian authorities, in his opinion, refused to discuss the matter.

"Damascus wants to negotiate over the Golan Heights, as if we possessed them, and they had not been sold to Israel. We do not want to discuss it. What we want to discuss is the formation of a transitional governing body in which there is no Bashar Assad," he stressed.

On Wednesday, HNC spokesman Yahya Aridi told Sputnik that Alloush, the leader of the Jaysh al-Islam group, would keep the role of the HNC chief negotiator.