Saudi Arabia will host a conference in mid-December to try to unite the Syrian opposition ahead of new peace talks, according to reports.
The goal of the conference is to attempt to present various factions of the Syrian opposition as a united front in future negotiations.
A child refugee with Saudi humanitarian supplies to Syria.
According to reports, the U.N. envoy to Syria, Staffan De Mistura, “informed the members in closed session that there will be a meeting in KSA on Dec. 15 to unite the moderate Syrian opposition to present a united front in any negotiations with the regime on a Transitional Governing body.”
“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is keen to gather the entire Syrian opposition and help them to [present] one voice and one unified position,” Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the UN, Abdallah al-Mouallimi, told al-Arabiya.
Ultimately, all sides must decide on the fate of Syria’s President, Bashar Al-Assad. While Saudi Arabia, the United States and Western nations want him out of any solution, Russia and Iran back the embattled leader.
“There is no future for Assad in Syria, with all due respect to the Russians or anyone else,” Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir said in September.
