Beirut: A big Syrian rebel group said it was unacceptable to talk about a political solution to the war as people die of hunger and bombardment and the best way to force Damascus towards a settlement was to give rebels anti-aircraft missiles.
The statement from Jaish Al Islam underlines opposition concerns over a UN-led diplomatic effort to launch peace talks in Geneva on Jan. 25. The opposition want goodwill measures including a ceasefire, a detainee release and the lifting of blockades on besieged areas before negotiations.
UN envoy Staffan de Mistura is shuttling around the region to prepare for the talks, part of a plan endorsed by the Security Council last month to end the five-year-war that has killed 250,000 people and created millions of refugees.
The group said it would guarantee the missiles would not reach groups that would use them “illegally”.
While foreign governments including the United States and Saudi Arabia have provided rebels with military support, they have resisted demands for such missiles for fear they would end up with hardline terrorist groups such as Daesh.
The Syrian government considers Jaish Al Islam is a terrorist group.
The Syrian government told de Mistura on Saturday it wished to obtain a list of groups that would be classified as terrorists as part of the peace process.
Jaish Al Islam said the success of the success of the political process “depended on the seriousness of the international community in putting pressure on the criminal regime to halt the killing”.
Opposition officials have already cast doubt on whether the talks will go ahead on schedule, citing the need to see the goodwill measures from the government side.
Meanwhile on the ground, Syria’s Al Qaida affiliate stormed a radio station and abducted two prominent media activists from a rebel-held northwestern town on Sunday, an opposition official told AFP.
“Al Nusra Front kidnapped activists Hadi Al Abdullah and Raed Fares in the offices of Fresh FM where they work and live in Kafranbel,” said Soner Taleb, head of media at the Syrian National Coalition.
Fares, Fresh FM’s director, has previously been detained by Al Nusra fighters, who disapprove of what they term the station’s “secular tendency and support of apostates”, Taleb said.
Abdallah shot to prominence in 2011 when anti-regime protests erupted across Syria, before the country’s descent into civil war.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor confirmed the abduction of Al Abdullah and Fares.
