HNC Adds Cairo Platform Member to Opposition Delegation Without Coordination

Firas Khalidi, a member of moderate Syrian opposition Cairo platform said that the Cairo group would like to settle the question of inclusion of the Cairo group in the list of the Syrian opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC) delegates for the February 20 intra-Syrian talks.

CAIRO (Sputnik) — The Syrian opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC) included a member of Cairo group in its list of the delegates for the February 20 settlement talks in Geneva without consulting the group itself first, a member of moderate Syrian opposition Cairo platform told Sputnik on Sunday.

Earlier in the day, the Riyadh-backed HNC announced the final composition of the delegation, which includes 11 opposition politicians and 10 representatives of armed groups.

"Khaled Mhameed is a member of Cairo group, but he attended the forum in Riyadh as a private party, the Riyadh group cannot [make] our representative [attend] without consulting us," Firas Khalidi said.

Khalidi added that the Cairo group would like to settle this question at the meeting of all opposition groups, but the Riyadh group had not responded to that initiative.

"They present themselves as the only official representatives [of the opposition]," Khalisi said.

Mhameed confirmed to Sputnik that he was on the list of Riyadh group's delegates, said he would go as a private party and urged the HNC to reach out to Cairo to choose an official representative of the group.