Baku-APA. The United States sought on Friday to persuade the Syrian opposition to agree to attend international peace talks in Geneva, a day before President Bashar al-Assad's opponents gather to decide on the issue, opposition sources said, APA reports quoting Reuters.
U.S. envoy Robert Ford met the senior leadership of the Syrian National Coalition in Istanbul to push them to approve the talks, which aim to end Syria's two-year-old civil war by creating a transitional governing body, coalition members said.
But there were strong reservations in the coalition against giving blanket commitments, the opposition members said, and tension between Saudi Arabia and the United States, the main backers of the coalition, was adding to the uncertainty.
Riyadh has expressed disappointment with U.S. policy toward Syria in the wake of a deal between Moscow and Washington to destroy Assad's chemical weapons arsenal that averted the threat of a Western military strike.
The 108 member coalition, which has little influence on the most formidable brigades fighting Assad, is due to meet on Saturday in Istanbul, with Geneva as the main item for discussions.
The meeting, expected to last at least two days, will also vote on admitting 11 new Kurdish members who are seen in favor of Geneva.
"The coalition will likely give only tacit approval to go. We feel we are being used as a scapegoat while the big powers themselves are in disagreement. How are we expected to go to talks for which we do not know the agenda?" one coalition source said.
"Ambassador) Ford is trying hard. But things are in flux. Saudi Arabia is angry and no one really knows in which direction the coalition will go," another source said.
U.S. officials were not immediately available for comment on Friday's reported meeting, which was not formally announced.
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