Our representative at the Riyadh meeting, Mr. Alaa Arafat, who was present as an observer for the reasons we had previously mentioned, objected to two paragraphs of the final communiqué of the meeting, namely, the departure of Assad at the beginning of the transitional period, because this is a precondition that undermines the negotiating process. He also objected to the paragraph concerning Iran, which neglects the fact that this country is one of the guarantors in Astana, and this paragraph only serves to aggravate the situation and results in making the Syrians lose more blood in favour of narrow interests.

A well-known source told «kassioun» website that the Moscow platform objected to two paragraphs in the text of the final statement issued by the opposition meeting in Riyadh, namely: the paragraph concerning President Bashar al-Assad as a precondition that hinders the start of direct negotiations, and the paragraph on Iran, considering that this paragraph gives a negative signal against Astana as Iran is a guarantor.

The UN Special Envoy to Syria, Stephane de Mistura called on the Syrian opposition to form one delegation to participate in the Geneva talks without preconditions, in order to discuss reaching a political solution in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 2254, noting that it is in everyone's interest to build peace and seek a political solution.

Kassioun website has known from a source participating in the Riyadh meetings that the platform's decision not to participate in the meetings came after the failure to reach an agreement in the consultations held within the preparatory committee.

The Moscow platform of the Syrian opposition – which includes the following political components: (the People Will Party, the Social Democratic Party, the Third Movement for Syria, the Mother Syria Youth Association , the Movement of Peaceful Change Road, the Syrian National Democratic Rally, and the Syrian Tribal Council), which all of them are Syrian forces existed in the Syrian interior, not in countries of the diaspora or abroad, and also contains some independent figures within its composition – stresses that no one has the right to speak on its behalf but only the spokesmen in its name, who are agreed upon among its basic components

A well-informed source in the Moscow platform has told «Kassioun» website that Mr. Alaa Arafat, the representative of the Moscow platform, may probably attend the Riyadh meetings as an observer, despite the announcement of the platform not to participate officially.

Yesterday night, the Moscow Platform informed the Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia of its apology for not attending the expanded meeting of the Syrian opposition, because of the lack of consensus during the meeting of the Preparatory Committee of the Conference on the foundations and principles which the negotiating delegation – that should be the result of the expanded meeting in Riyadh on 22- 24 of this month – should be based upon.

The debate over the upcoming round of the Geneva negotiations over the Syrian crisis is becoming serious once again, in the context of the ongoing preparations for the resumption of these negotiations on the 28th of this month, as the international envoy announced.

The regional situation is witnessing new attempts to raise the level of tension, through a broad propaganda campaign, about the possibility of igniting a regional war, warning of «Apocalypse»!

The declaration of the Russian Federation about the possibility of holding a conference for «Syrian national dialogue», has aroused the Geneva process from its stagnant state, and provoked the extremist forces in the Riyadh group, so they expressed mistrust and libeled the conference even before its nature, function and final features have been clarified.