Syria's exiled opposition began debating today whether to join international peace talks next week after Damascus offered concessions including a ceasefire plan for the battered city of Aleppo.
But the National Coalition remains riven by internal divisions, making its attendance at the key talks in Switzerland far from certain despite intense pressure from the West and Arab states.
And US Secretary of State John Kerry bluntly dismissed the Damascus regime's proposals as a diversionary ploy ahead of the so-called Geneva II conference, saying "nobody is going to be fooled".
The talks opening on Wednesday are aimed at setting up a transitional government to find a way out of the brutal conflict that has killed 130,000 people and made millions homeless since March 2011.
The Coalition's general assembly began meeting at a hotel in a far suburb of Istanbul today after haggling over various issues prevented the talks beginning as planned yesterday.
The opposition -- an umbrella of myriad groups -- has long struggled to put forward a united front during the war, rocked by infighting over its leadership and efforts to form a government in exile.
And many members are appalled at the idea of sitting down at the same table with representatives of the hated regime they have been trying to unseat for almost three years.
In a surprise move in Moscow yesterday, Syria's Foreign Minister Walid Muallem presented his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov with a security plan aimed at halting "all military actions" in the devastated northern city of Aleppo.
Muallem also said the regime was willing to swap prisoners with the rebels in the first such mass exchange since the conflict erupted, while Lavrov said Damascus was ready to take "a series of humanitarian steps" to improve the delivery of aid.
And today, food aid entered the besieged Yarmuk Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus -- where dozens of people are reported to have died of hunger and lack of medical care -- for the first time in four months.
Syria, Muallem said, would "make every effort to ensure Geneva II is a success and meets the aspirations of the Syrian people and the direct orders of President Bashar al-Assad".
