Syria Stresses Commitment to Attend Geneva II Conference

Damascus (Antara/Xinhua-OANA) - Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad stressed Monday his government's commitment to attend the Geneva II conference on Syria, noting, however, that the conference must be well-prepared. "We have stressed that we were going to attend the Geneva II conference whether it is going to be held tomorrow, the day after, or within a week or even a month or more, this is our steady stance," Mekdad told a press conference. While stressing the Syrian government's keenness to make the conference successful, Mekdad said the conference must adopt the concept of non-violence and non-terrorism immediately. "When Syrians sit together, they would find solutions to the internal problems," he remarked. His remarks came a day after the broad-based Syrian National Coalition (SNC), the main opposition umbrella in exile, placed preconditions to its participation in the planned conference, which is designed to hammer out a political solution to the country's long-standing conflict. On Sunday, the Western-backed SNC threw a monkey wrench into the planned peace talks in Geneva, saying that it will not attend the "Geneva II" peace conference unless there is a strict timetable for President Bashar al-Assad to leave power. Striking a muscular tone at an Arab League foreign ministers' meeting in Egypt's Cairo, SNC's Saudi-backed President Ahmad Jarba said on Sunday that his group would also not attend the conference if Iran is invited, calling on the international powers to declare Iran as an "occupant country," referring to the help Iran is rendering to the administration of al-Assad. The opposition's adamant stance regarding peace talks with the Syrian government has dimmed hopes of any breakthrough during the proposed conference that is tentatively planned for next month.(*) (U.Chaidar/Chaidar)