Russia accuses Syrian opposition of sabotaging peace talks

Russia accused the main Syrian opposition group at peace talks in Geneva of sabotaging the process on March 2, a day after Moscow's Foreign Ministry officials met the rebels for rare talks on how to narrow their differences.

Backed by Western and Arab states and Turkey, the High Negotiations Committee (HNC) met with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov on March 1 to discuss what it says are Moscow's broken cease-fire promises and put pressure on the Syrian government delegation.

"Unfortunately, we note that based on the results of the first few days the talks are once again raising questions about the ability of representatives of the Syrian opposition to do a deal," Reuters quoted Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as telling a news briefing in Moscow.

"The so-called High Negotiations Committee is refusing to cooperate equally with the Moscow and Cairo platforms and is in fact sabotaging fully-fledged dialogue," she said, referring to two smaller opposition groups that curry favor in Moscow.

Despite a cease-fire nominally in force since late December - sponsored by Russia, Turkey and Iran - violence has escalated since the onset of the talks a week ago and the warring sides appear no closer to actual negotiations.  

The opposition's lead negotiator Nasr al-Hariri told reporters on March 1 that the meeting with Gatilov had been positive with a frank exchange on issues ranging from the cease-fire to political transition and fighting terrorism.

The opposition considers "political transition" as meaning Assad must hand over power. On March 1, they said that after hearing from U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura, they believed that Russia had persuaded Syria's government negotiators that a transition...