Rebel Free Syrian Army: No Ceasefire for Peace Talks

Pro-West Group Rules Out Attending Geneva Conference

Though the Syrian National Coalition (SNC) has agreed to attend peace talks in Geneva on January 22, their affiliated military faction, the pro-Western Free Syrian Army (FSA) will not attend itself.

FSA commanders have criticized the decision by the SNC to attend, and also say that they will not implement any ceasefire during the talks, nor any that results from the talks themselves.

Since the FSA is the only faction the SNC would seemingly be able to count on for support, that makes their position at the talks all the weaker. Other Islamist factions have called attending the talks “treason” and threatened retaliation against any group involved in them.

Since the whole point of the talks is to negotiate some sort of end to the civil war, it isn’t clear anything will be accomplished by the SNC’s cooperation, since they don’t speak for many, if any, fighters on the ground.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.