Syria's largest mainstream opposition group said Friday, January 29 that it would attend UN-led peace talks in Switzerland, easing fears that it would boycott a process aimed at ending the tangled civil war, AFP reports.
The Saudi-backed High Negotiations Committee (HNC) said it would "take part in the political process to test the seriousness of the other side through discussions with the UN team," after four days of suspense over whether it would join.
A senior HNC delegate told AFP the Committee will send "about 30, 35 people" to the talks, which got under way on Friday in the biggest political push yet to end Syria's almost five-year war.
In a tweet, however, the HNC stressed that the group would be there "to participate in discussions with the @UN, not for negotiations."
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, France and Saudi Arabia, where the HNC is based, welcomed the late decision to send a delegation.
Representatives from the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad arrived earlier on Friday for their first meeting with UN special envoy Staffan de Mistura, AFP says.
The 16-member delegation met with the UN mediator for nearly three hours, and left the body's headquarters without speaking to media.
De Mistura said his preliminary talks with the HNC could happen on either Saturday or Sunday, telling reporters they would have "some work… certainly on Monday."
