Chief negotiator of Syria’s Saudi-based opposition quits talks
Chief negotiator of the Saudi-based Syrian opposition has resigned over what he called the failure of UN-brokered negotiations to end the conflict in the Arab country.
Mohammed Alloush, a senior figure with the Jaish al-Islam militant group in the so-called High Negotiations Committee (HNC), on Sunday called peace talks a “waste of time.”
The negotiations, he said, could not bring about a political settlement to the conflict, citing the failure to secure the release of thousands of detainees or to push President Bashar al-Assad out of office.
Jaish al-Islam is one of the Saudi-sponsored Takfiri groups operating to topple Assad.
The HNC said it has not yet elected its new chief representative in the Geneva talks after Alloush tendered his resignation.
Head of the main Syrian opposition delegation Asaad al-Zoubi also told the Saudi al Hadath TV channel that he wanted to be relieved of his post, but did not confirm if he had taken a similar step.
Last peace talks were suspended on April 27 after the opposition abandoned them and declared a "new war" on the Syrian government.
UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said this week there were no plans for new talks in the next three weeks.
Ceasefire strengthens Nusra
Al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria has recruited thousands of militants, including teenagers, and taken territory from government forces in an offensive in the north, Associated Press reported on Sunday.
It is "illustrating how the ceasefire put in place by Russia and the United States to weaken the militants has in many ways backfired," the news agency said.
Since March, Nusra Front has recruited 3,000 new militants, including teenagers, in comparison to an average of 200 to 300 a month before, AP quoted the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights as saying.
Other sources said hundreds living in camps for displaced people in the northern parts near Turkey have joined the al-Qaeda branch.
Nusra and other Takfiri terrorists hold most of the northwestern province of Idlib and parts of neighboring Aleppo province.
Saudi Arabia and its allies as well as Turkey are considered as the main supporters of Takfiri groups fighting to topple the Syrian government.
According to de Mistura, some 400,000 people have lost their lives in more than five years of foreign-backed militancy in Syria.
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