Syrian delegation back to Geneva as the army liberates new areas in eastern regions

Tabnak – A week after it had left the Geneva talks over radical demands of the opposition, the Syrian government’s delegation has once again returned to the negotiations. Meanwhile, the Syrian army is continuing its advances against the arms groups in eastern Syria.

The Syrian government’s delegation has returned to Geneva in a bid to resume the UN-organized peace talks for Syria with the representatives of the foreign-backed opposition groups, more than a week after Damascus left the negotiations, arguing that the other side had made the road to peace impassable.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry on Thursday had announced that Ja’afari and his team would arrive in Geneva to “participate in the eighth round” of the peace negotiations. However, Reuters reports that Western diplomats has voiced skepticism about the prospects for the success of Geneva negotiations.

Reuters cites a senior Western diplomat, claiming that “The opposition has been extremely constructive and willing to get down to it… They are in a difficult place while being criticized internally and pressured by the fact that the regime is bombing away in eastern Ghouta and other places.”

However, Ja‘afari had said at the time of leaving Geneva on December 1 that there were “big problems in this round of talks” and that the opposition had “mined the road” to the talks, pointing to a statement released last month by the opposition insisting that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should step down before any peace deal could be reached.

Meanwhile on the battlefield, it is reported that the Syrian army and popular forces by Russian air power stepped up a military campaign against armed groups in eastern Hama province in a push towards the rebel stronghold of Idlib province in northwestern Syria.

The terrorist group Hayat Tahrir al Sham and some Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebel faction in control of these areas said they were sending reinforcements to seize back a string of villages in the northeastern Hama countryside, near the town of Rihjan, that the army had earlier announced were captured in heavy fighting.

The Syrian army had lost the strategically located Idlib province to the terrorists and armed groups when the provincial capital fell to those groups in 2015. It has since become the only province that is fully under opposition control.

In another development regarding Syria, Russia plans to hold an all-Syrian congress, known as the Syrian National Dialog Congress, in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, which would involve drawing up a framework for Syria’s future structure, adopting a new constitution and holding elections under the UN supervision.

On November 20, Assad, in a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, said that he was “ready for dialog with all those who want to come up with a political settlement.”