Continued Russian bombings of civilians blamed for jeopardizing the fragile peace talks

Residents carry banners and opposition flags as they march during a protest in Aleppo

Syria’s main opposition bloc has given warning that attacks by government forces in Aleppo province could stand in the way of the peace talks under way in Geneva.

The warning was sounded by the Higher Negotiations Committee (HNC), which sent a 17-strong opposition team, including three rebel leaders, to the Swiss city for talks.

Salim al-Muslet, HNC spokesman, said the opposition was waiting for reaction to the developments in Aleppo and other provinces.

'It is important for us to see the lifting of sieges of children starving to death,' she said.

'Since last night, big massacres have taken place in Syria and nobody is doing or saying anything.

'We do not know if the international community is completely blind or they do not want to do anything. We are here to know if they are keen to do anything - then we are waiting for them.'

Syria’s Opposition Says Cannot Attend Talks if Third Party Joins

Riad Hijab, head of the council representing Syrian opposition

RIYADH - A Syrian opposition council backed by Saudi Arabia said on Wednesday it will not attend January 25th peace negotiations with the Syrian regime if a third group takes part, a reference to a Russian bid to widen the opposition’s team.

Riad Hijab, who heads the council formed in Riyadh last month, accused Russia of impeding negotiations, and also told a news conference in Riyadh that the opposition could not negotiate while Syrians were dying from blockades and bombardment, Reuters reported, Jan. 20th.

He also announced the names of opposition figures that would negotiate on behalf of the council in any talks.

They included Mohamed Alloush, a political figure in the Jaysh al-Islam (Islam Army) rebel group that is deemed a terrorist group by Damascus and Moscow.

'The opposition delegation is now ready,' George Sabra, an opposition politician also named as a negotiator, told opposition channel Orient TV. Asaad al-Zoubi, another opposition figure, was named as the head of the negotiating team.

Iran - Patrick J. Kennedy: The illusion of Iranian moderation

patrick-kennedy

Former US Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy has written in the Thursday edition of the Providence Journal about how Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is not at all “moderate”, despite Western perception, and that such a gap between perception and reality has existed for “more than three decades.”

“Countless instances since the 2013 election of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani—including most recently the state-sanctioned torching of the Saudi embassy in Tehran — should have dispelled the notion that we are dealing with a moderate reformist at the helm of the Islamic Republic,” Mr Kennedy writes. “Sectarian conflict is on the rise with Iran backing Syria’s Assad, Hezbollah, an anti-American insurgency in Yemen and radical Shia factions in Iraq.”

The former Congressman noted how these developments “have proven the accuracy of analyses from sources like the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), which insisted from the start that moderation was not a realistic prospect under the existing theocratic regime.”

“Indeed, the illusion of a “moderate” Iranian president has persisted for more than three decades, despite its nonexistence in reality. Rouhani is only the latest to artfully exploit this fantasy and play into a naïve, aspirational worldview among many in the West about Tehran's behavior and intentions.”