Syria government dims hope of new openings at peace talks

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A Russian pilot getting in a Sukhoi Su-25 before taking off at the Hmeimim military base near Latakia, Syria

GENEVA — Syria’s government on Wednesday firmly rejected direct negotiations with opposition envoys, dampening hopes of greater compromise at peace talks after Russia this week began drawing down its troops from the war torn-country.

Bashar Jaafari, the government’s lead representative to the negotiations in Geneva, dismissed the opposition delegates as “terrorists” who should apologize for Syria’s civil war.

He also questioned the legitimacy of the opposition team, represented by an umbrella group known as the High Negotiations Committee, suggesting that it did not adequately reflect the full spectrum of groups against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

“No Syrian faction can monopolize the representation of all the opposition,” Jaafari told journalists after meeting the U.N. envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura.

The talks resumed on Monday, with de Mistura shuttling between the opposing sides, but the goal remains direct political dialogue between the government and the groups that sought to bring it down.

Diplomats and opposition members have expressed guarded optimism over the new effort, citing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s surprise announcement Monday to withdraw most of his military forces from Syria as a positive step.

Many see the move as an attempt to pressure Assad to make concessions in the talks, which were restarted after a previous round last month collapsed because of intense fighting in Syria.

Jaafari repeated the government’s denial that the Russian leader’s announcement took the Syrian leadership by surprise. Russia intervened militarily in the Syrian conflict in September, firing airstrikes at rebel groups in attacks that have bolstered Assad’s rule and badly weakened the armed opposition.

“It wasn’t a surprise for us. It was coordinated,” said Jaafari, who also is the Syrian ambassador to the United Nations.

On Tuesday, the opposition delegation criticized the government for failing, among other things, to release detainees. That is a requirement in the U.N. resolutions and communiqués from previous rounds of peace talks that serve as a roadmap for the current negotiations.