PYD won't be invited to Syria talks, says French FM Fabius

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Jan. 27 that the United Nations' special envoy to Syria had told him that he would not be inviting the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) to peace talks in Geneva scheduled to start on Jan. 29 and that a Riyadh-backed opposition group would lead the negotiations. 

"[Staffan] de Mistura sent invitations ... the PYD group was causing the most problems, and Mr de Mistura told me he had not sent them an invitation letter," Reuters quoted Fabius as telling France Culture radio. 

Fabius said de Mistura had also confirmed to him that a Riyadh-formed opposition group would lead negotiations even though other opponents could also be present. 

"I spoke to Mr [Riyad] Hijab [opposition coordinator]... he will respond to de Mistura and Ban ki-Moon this morning. If I understand their position, they say yes to negotiations ... and at the same time want details to be given in terms of who is participating, what's being done on the humanitarian front and what we are going to talk about." 

France has been a key backer of moderate opposition forces battling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and has been advising them on how to prepare for proposed U.N.-backed talks expected to begin on Jan. 29 involving the Syrian government.   

Turkey opposes to the inclusion of PYD into the opposition side, as it sees the party and its armed wing, YPG, to be an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), with which it continues an armed clash since the mid-1980s. 

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavu?o?lu said Jan. 26 that Turkey would boycott the Geneva talks if PYD would be invited to the table. 

But earlier in the day, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned...