Syrian opposition groups will join talks to keep alive slim hopes for peace

The main, Western-backed Syrian opposition groups say they’ll attend U.N.-sponsored peace talks with the Damascus government in Geneva starting on Monday. The groups, assembled under an umbrella known as the High Negotiations Committee, said their participation was in response to sincere international efforts to end Syria’s five-year civil war. The HNC's team in Geneva will press for a transitional governing body with full executive powers and a pluralist regime in which president Bashar Assad and his associates will have no role.

(We are) concerned with representing the just cause of the Syrian people…and investing in all available chances to alleviate the Syrian people’s suffering

HNC coordinator Riad Hijab

The first round of Geneva talks collapsed last month during a wide government offensive against insurgents. They will resume just over two weeks after a ceasefire agreement took effect which has reduced violence but not halted the fighting. In Syria, government forces backed by Russian air strikes began a new offensive to recapture the historic city of Palmyra from Islamic State. The Russian air force has hit the city with dozens of air strikes since Wednesday, while government forces were on Friday battling Islamic State a few miles from the ancient site that fell to the jihadists last May.

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