Saudi Arabia will host a conference in mid-December aimed at unifying the Syrian opposition, the state-owned al-Arabiya television station has announced.
The conference comes after an international agreement to launch talks between Syria’s government and opposition by 1 January.
“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is keen to gather the entire Syrian opposition and help them to [present] one voice and one unified position,” Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the UN, Abdallah al-Mouallimi, told al-Arabiya.
He said the conference would include “all shades of the opposition” including figures based inside Syria.
“And at that point the United Nations is prepared to convene the parties in Geneva and begin the process of creating this transitional process for Syria itself,” he told reporters after briefing members of the US Senate Intelligence Committee.
“The Syrians themselves will negotiate that,” Kerry said, adding that the United States would be there to help and encourage the process. “But it’s Syrians who have to resolve and decide the future of Syria itself,” he said.