Syria's Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebel group put forward a number of preconditions prior to its participation in the proposed peace conference in Geneva, as the exiled opposition names new interim government.
In a statement issued Tuesday, a day after the exiled political opposition outlined its conditions to attend the proposed conference, the FSA said that it wants a "transitional body with full executives" and full trial to the "perpetrators of crimes against the Syrian people."
While noting that what are being put forward for the Geneva II conference "lack a clear vision and suitable mechanisms, the FSA's higher council welcomed "any political solution that is based on circumstances and climates that could make it successful."
Meanwhile, the FSA outlined a number of steps it deems necessary for the success of the conference, mainly forming a transitional government with full executives that include controlling everything, including the Syrian army.
Moreover, the FSA, which is advocating a moderate approach from other radical Islamist rebels, called for halting the work in the recent constitution in Syria and to set a specific timetable for negotiations under the binding UN Charter 7, which could allow the use of force in case of incompliance.
The Western-backed FSA also called for the release of political prisoners and for the formation of a judicial committee to bring those "who have committed crimes against the Syrian people to trial."
It also urged stopping the "regime forces' shelling on Syrian cities" and to open humanitarian corridors to the besieged areas.
It stressed that the opposition should be represented at the conference with one delegation that could group members of the oppositional Syrian National Coalition (SNC) as well as members of the FSA higher command's council.
A day earlier, the exiled Western-backed SNC, following pressures from its Western patron, said that it had agreed to join the Geneva II conference on condition that President Bashar al- Assad play no role in a transitional governing body.
"The coalition's participation should be on the basis that Bashar al-Assad, his assistants and remnants have no role in the transitional period and the future of Syria," the SNC's spokesperson Louay Safi said at a press conference in Turkey's Istanbul.
The coalition also demanded the release of detainees and the immediate opening of humanitarian corridors for the entries of the Red Cross, the Red Crescent and other humanitarian agencies to enter into the besieged areas.
The United States and Russia are exerting efforts to convene the Geneva II peace talks with an aim to end the 31-month crisis in Syria.
The planned conference is a follow-up to last year's international meeting in Geneva that drafted a peace roadmap for Syria but was never materialized.
And in a bid to add more legitimacy to their entity, the SNC, the main opposition umbrella in exile, named a provisional government, a symbolic move that won't have any significance effects since it would operate on the Syrian-Turkish borders.
Following the SNC's preconditions, China on Tuesday called for all parties to participate in the Geneva II conference "without setting preconditions".
