Syria regime, rebels agree to terms of peace talks A long way from Geneva: Free Syrian Army fighters walk down a street in Homs as negotiators determine their future in Switzerland. Geneva: Syria's warring parties broke through a key hurdle in agreeing on Friday night to meet face to face after the government had threatened to walk away from talks. Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations envoy who is chairing talks in Geneva, said both sides had accepted that the negotiations would be based on principles agreed 18 months ago to establish a "transitional governing body by mutual consent." Before this week the Syrian government had never explicitly accepted the so-called "Geneva 1" communique and subsequent UN Security Council resolution setting that out, but the opposition made it an explicit condition of talking directly to the regime. "Tomorrow we have agreed that we will meet in the same room," Mr Brahimi said on Friday night. The whole process is based on the Geneva communique and I think the two parties understand that very well and accept it. The opposition Syrian National Coalition, supported by Western powers, says the communique implies that President Bashar al-Assad must step down, as it would never consent to his being part of a transitional government. The regime has said it is up to "the Syrian people" to decide who rules them, but has still not made explicit what it understands by the communique. Mr Brahimi said: "No one contests that there are differences with some interpretations." Earlier, the initial refusal by the opposition to meet the regime, as had been agreed previously, had been condemned by the Syrian government team, who embarked on a media offensive to dismiss the rebel coalition as thinking only about their "foreign hotels stays and not the suffering of the Syrian people." Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem had said he would leave with his team if the coalition continued to hold up talks. However, the coalition said the demand that the regime explicitly accept the terms of the talks was reasonable. "The whole world recognises Geneva 1, which calls for a transition," said Burhan Ghalioun, a senior opposition figure, outside the hall where Mr Brahimi was meeting the regime delegation. Both sides have agreed to discuss humanitarian issues and the possibility of local ceasefires. The regime has proposed one for Aleppo. But the opposition fears that the regime's insistence that these issues be dealt with first, along with "terrorism," is an attempt to put off discussion of the key issue: whether Dr Assad can remain in power in any peace deal. They believe a lengthy talks process will just entrench his rule. A coalition spokeswoman welcomed the regime's apparent change of stance but said the coalition was still trying to determine whether it was genuine. Mr Brahimi also said he was aware that large parts of the opposition were not represented, including two al-Qaeda factions, the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, and Jabhat al-Nusra.