spokesman Farhan Haq said.

The opposition on January 20th announced the names of members of its delegation, including Moham­med Alloush as chief negotiator, for the Geneva talks. Alloush a political leader of Jaysh al-Islam, a major re­bel group that Moscow and Damas­cus deemed “terrorist”.

Syrian opposition members said, however, they would not attend the talks if a third party takes part, refer­ring to Russia’s intention to widen the opposition delegation and im­pede the negotiations.

UN special envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura had set January 25th as the date for the talks. His spokes­man said in a statement on Decem­ber 26th that he counts on “full cooperation” from all the relevant Syrian parties, adding that recent developments in Syria would not hinder the talks from taking place.

“The hopes for Geneva talks,if it is going to be held, are very modest,” said Samir Nashar, a senior member of the Syrian National Coalition, the major political opposition group. “The conflict will continue until there’s a change in the regional and international arena.”

Unlike previous negotiations be­tween Syria’s opposition and the Assad regime, this phase had been projected to be more productive, as per UN Security Council Resolution 2254 with which the United Nations gained an enhanced role in the pro­cess.

Resolution 2254, unanimously adopted on December 18th and based on the June 2012 Geneva com­muniqué, assigned the United Na­tions the responsibility of outlining a “nationwide ceasefire” in Syria. The ceasefire would demand both the regime and the opposition to take “initial steps” towards a politi­cal transition, which would lead to the formation