Syrian opposition umbrella group decides to join UN-backed peace talks but ‘not for negotiations’

Syria’s largest mainstream opposition group said Friday that it would attend UN-led peace talks in Switzerland, easing fears that it would boycott a process aimed at ending the tangled civil war.

The Saudi-backed High Negotiations Committee (HNC) said it would “take part in the political process to test the seriousness of the other side through discussions with the UN team”, after four days of uncertainty over whether it would join.

Despite Western pressure to attend, the HNC had previously said it would not take part in the Geneva talks without an agreement on relief reaching hundreds of thousands of people stuck in besieged Syrian towns.

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A senior HNC delegate said the Committee will send “about 30, 35 people” to the talks, which got under way on Friday in the biggest political push yet to end Syria’s almost five-year war.

In a tweet, however, the HNC stressed that the group would be there “to participate in discussions with the @UN, not for negotiations”.

Backed by external powers embroiled in Syria’s war, the talks are seeking to end a conflict that has killed more than 260,000 people and fuelled the meteoric rise of the extremist Islamic State group.

US Secretary of State John Kerry, France and Saudi Arabia, where the HNC is based, welcomed the late decision to send a delegation.