Syria will join 2nd round of Geneva II talks

DAMASCUS - Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said Friday that the Syrian government will take part in the second round of talks in Geneva II conference slated for February 10, according to the official SANA news agency.

The participation of the government delegation to the second round of talks in Geneva has been decided, Mekdad said, adding that the delegation will stress to discuss the items of the Geneva I communique, concluded in 2012.

The delegation will also discuss putting an end to the terrorism in Syria, said Mekdad, a member of the government delegation.

Last Friday, the first round of talks in Geneva between the delegations of the Syrian government and the oppositional Syrian National Coalition (SNC) ended without achieving results with both sides sticking to their demands.

The talks, mediated by the international envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi, were marred with confrontational tones.

The opposition coalition demanded from the very beginning the establishment of a transitional government in Syria with full executives, based on the communique adopted at a previous conference in Geneva in 2012. They said President Bashar al-Assad must have no role in the transitional government.

However, the government team said it is not going to hand over power to the coalition, but only to negotiate a political solution. It said Assad's departure is a "red line."

Broader segments of the opposition are going to be represented in upcoming talks as the SNC delegation was the sole representative of the opposition in the last talks.