Syria oppn to skip peace meet

BEIRUT : Syria’s main opposition negotiating body said Saturday it will boycott a peace conference in Russia next week, saying it would not lead to a genuine peace track that could end the country’s seven-year war.

The High Negotiations Committee announced the boycott of the Russia-backed conference in Sochi in a tweet Sunday night after a vote held in Vienna, Austria, where a U.n.-led conference was being held.

The t wo-day conference ended, as in many previous rounds, with accusations hurled back and forth between the two sides in comments to the press.

“The (Syrian) regime doesn’t believe in a political solution and it will not believe in the future ... it only believes in the military option,” Syrian opposition leader Naser al-hariri said from Vienna on Saturday.

Russia has been steering a separate negotiating track in Astana, and now in the Black Sea resort of Sochi where the conference is scheduled to be held on Monday with the participation of some 1,600 representatives of the Syrian government and opposition.

Opposition figures have said Russia, which backs Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces, is trying to undermine the U.n.-led talks. However the spokesman for the U.N. secretary general on Saturday said he is confident that the conference in Sochi will be an important contribution to a “revived intra-syrian talks under the auspices of the U.N. in Geneva,” and added that the U.N. Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura would take part in the conference.

The opposition boycott comes amid the backdrop of escalating violence, particularly in northern Syria, where Turkey has been attacking a Kurdish-controlled enclave for days. Turkish authorities have also threatened the Turkish forces’ push into Afrin would stretch further east, to the Syrian Kurdish town of Manbij and until the border with Iraq.

The Turkish offensive has further strained ties between Ankara and Washington.