A number of high-profile members of Syrian rebel factions have announced that they won’t be attending the Moscow peace talks scheduled for later this month, meaning the meeting will essentially not include anyone of note from the opposition side.
Opposition figures in Istanbul had initially expressed interest in the program, but disputes over the Syrian government being allowed to hand-pick which people got invites led to a backlash.
Still, from a negotiated settlement, the Moscow talks were the only game in town, with nobody else even attempting to put together significant meetings of this site in many months, and no sign of any others going forward.
The UN had previously organized some previous negotiations also aimed at a settlement, but never invited the Islamist factions to the talks, meaning that the moderate rebels were similarly in a poor position to reach a deal to end the fighting, since they are smaller groups to begin with and couldn’t speak for ISIS and the other major factions.
