Geneva, SANA-Head of the Syrian Arab Republic delegation to the 8th round of intra-Syrian dialogue, Dr. Bashar al-Jaafari, said that the delegation discussed the issue of combating terrorism as the basic approach to deal with all other baskets during this round of talks.
“The eighth round of the talks has ended and we, as a delegation of the Syrian Arab Republic, made an intensive effort to come out with a positive outcome. In view of our conviction of what is taking place on the ground of a terrorist war, we proposed talking about terrorism as a main point because the fight against terrorism is the basic entrance to deal with all other baskets,” al-Jaafari said in a press conference following a session of talks held with UN Special Envoy to Syria.
“We hope the operators of the other delegation will benefit from this opportunity to direct members of this delegation, which has called itself as al-Riyadh delegation, to cancel al-Riyadh 2 statement because we made it clear from the beginning that as long as this statement exists, we will not engage in direct dialogue with them. Anyway, we will wait for the results of the efforts of the operators of the other delegation because the operators know very well that the Syrian government will not accept dialogue in the presence of any precondition. Of course we mean that al-Riyadh 2 statement is a precondition for the talks,” al-Jaafari added.
In response to a question about the coincidence of terrorist attacks in Syria with the start of each round of Geneva, al-Jaafari said that the operators of the armed terrorist groups are themselves the operators of the other party in Geneva and have been sending bloody messages to influence the Geneva sessions and events.
“At the beginning of our meeting today, we focused with de Mistura on the terrorist acts that took place during the past two days in Syria,” al-Jaafrai said.
In reference to de Mistura’s recent statements, al-Ja’afari said “al-Riyadh statement was intended to move us from the diplomatic process to the political process, but we found a new stance represented by proposing preconditions by the operators of the other delegation.
As the preconditions that were accompanying all rounds of dialogue in Geneva and made this path retreat in front of Astana and Sochi tracks, Jaafari said “we will judge this talk through the positions of the operators of the other delegation and their commitment to the agenda of the Geneva talks.”
On the allegations made by the opposition delegation that it arrived in Geneva without preconditions, al-Jaafari said that those who drafted the Riyadh 2 statement meant to undermine Geneva process by setting preconditions, adding that “the operators of the other parties; I mean, the Saudi authorities and their Western operators do not want Geneva process to succeed…Syria as a state won’t accept any terrorist blackmail that would influence the political course of the Geneva talks.”
“Russia is a key ally for Syria in the fight against terrorism; al-Jaafari affirmed, adding “the Syrian government has said since the beginning of the course of Geneva that there are two tracks which don’t affect each other, combating terrorism and the political track. We don’t’ want the Geneva process to fail, so we have been engaged in serious talks during eight rounds with the UN delegation.”
Al-Jaafari noted that the UN Special Envoy will present a briefing to UN Security Council next 
Tuesday and the Syrian government will determine its attitude regarding his authority in the light of what he will say in the briefing.
He affirmed that when the Syrian delegation notice any fault in the performance of the UN Special envoy, we tell him this speech directly, adding “We tell him what we think and what we believe in a transparent and diplomatic way.”
“We do not put preconditions, but we oppose proposing any preconditions,” he said, stressing that the Syrian government does not accept imposing a fait accompli on it by anyone.
He pointed out that to fight terrorism in a legal way, this requires cooperating with the Syrian government rather than relying on an illegal foreign military presence on the Syrian territory, meaning the illegal US military presence, stressing that the fight against Daesh (ISIS) terrorist organization is a duty of all national forces in Syria.
As for Sochi conference, Al-Jaafari said that the framework that will outline the Syrian National Dialogue Congress in Sochi is completely different from the framework in which the meetings of Geneva and Astana were held, pointing out that the Riyadh 2 statement needs to be canceled in order to hold any direct dialogue with the delegation of the so-called “opposition” in addition to forming a unified delegation in implementation of UNSC resolution no.2254.
Earlier, the Syrian Arab Republic delegation, headed by Dr. Bashar al-Jaafari, on Thursday held fourth session of talks with de Mistura.
Over the past three days, The Syrian Arab Republic delegation held three sessions of talks with de Mistura in framework of the second stage of the 8th round of the intra-Syrian dialogue.
The first stage of the 8th round of the intra-Syrian dialogue was concluded on December 1 st.
In a press conference at the end of the 1st stage, al-Jaafari affirmed there are those who seek to derail the Geneva talks by trying to impose preconditions, pointing out that the statement of the “Riyadh 2” group aimed at undermining the chances of a successful dialogue in Geneva, which is totally unacceptable.
Manar/Ghossoun/Mazen
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