CAIRO (AA) – Head of the Syrian Opposition Coalition (SOC) Ahmad Jarba will lead the opposition delegation to an extraordinary Arab ministerial meeting on the Syrian crisis on Sunday.
"The SOC will seek a unified Arab position on the participation in the Geneva II conference," Fayez Sara, a media and political adviser to Jarba, told Anadolu Agency on Wednesday.
The conference had initially been planned for late May, after having first been proposed at a Moscow meeting between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
But amid disagreements as to who should have seats at the table, the event was repeatedly postponed.
Sarah listed three conditions to attend the conference; releasing the detainees, lifting the siege on liberated areas and allowing the entry of food and medicine and reaching an international consensus on the fate of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Syria has been in the throes of civil war since March 2011 after a peaceful uprising against Assad escalated into an armed insurrection following a violent government crackdown on anti-regime demonstrations.
Activists say that more than 115,000 people have been killed so far in the ongoing conflict.
UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi reportedly told a French newspaper that Assad could contribute to the transition to a “new” Syria, but not as the country’s leader.
But the envoy later denied the remarks, saying that his statements were "misunderstood".
But Sara played down the controversy.
"Brahimi is no more than a mediator and he is not entitled to impose preconditions," he said.
