Syria opposition fails to name team for Geneva II

The exiled Syrian opposition has failed to name its delegation to the planned Geneva II conference, a Syrian foreign ministry source was cited by local al-Watan newspaper as saying Tuesday.

"Invitations to the conference have not been sent as planned Dec 28 as a result of the faltering efforts to form the opposition delegation, as the final deadline for that was Dec 27," the source said, adding that the Syrian government has already sent the names of its delegation which will be headed by Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem.

The unnamed source went on to say that the Syrian government was carrying on with its preparations for the conference, emanating from its keenness to put an end to the terrorism that has been hurting the country for three years now, according to Xinhua.

Meanwhile, the paper cited another diplomatic source in New York as saying that special envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, has not yet received the names of the opposition delegation or justification for that delay.

The Syrian opposition is hobbled with differences and fractions as each group wants to impose its will on the other.

The US administration wants the Turkey-based Syrian National Coalition to be the representative of the Syrian opposition at the peace conference while the Syria-based groups said they would not take part under the coalition's umbrella.

Yet, the home-based groups, mainly the National Coordination Body (NCB), called for a unified opposition delegation that would represent all factions of the opposition groups inside and outside Syria, adding that such a unified delegation should agree on a unified negotiation mechanism.