Damascus to attend Geneva conference: Syria FM

Damascus says it will take part in the forthcoming international conference in Geneva, describing the talks as a “good opportunity for finding a political solution” to end the unrest in Syria.

Syria Foreign Minister Walid Muallem told a news conference in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, on Sunday that the Damascus government has agreed “in principle” to take part in Geneva conference in June, which is aimed at ending the crisis in the Arab country.

“We think … that the international conference represents a good opportunity for a political solution to the crisis in Syria,” Muallem said in a joint news conference with his Iraqi counterpart, Hoshyar Zebari.

Muallem arrived in Baghdad earlier on Sunday and has held talks with Iraqi foreign minister and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Baghdad says it welcomes Syria’s decision to attend the conference known as Geneva 2.

Syria’s opposition National Coalition (SNC) has yet to announce whether or not it will participate in the upcoming talks. The divided SNC has been holding meetings in the Turkish city of Istanbul since May 23 to work out its stance on the conference.

On the first day of the talks, SNC spokesman Khaled Saleh said he would not attend the conference without indications that Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad is stepping down.

The top commander of foreign-backed militants in Syria, Brigadier General Salim Idris, has also said that he would not attend Geneva 2 unless the United States and its allies provided the militants in Syria with anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.

On May 7, Russia and the United States agreed in Moscow to convene an international conference on Syria, which will serve as a follow-up to an earlier Geneva meeting held in June 2012.

The first Geneva conference, which was held under the chairmanship of former UN-Arab League Special Envoy to Syria Kofi Annan, called for a political solution to Syria crisis.