On Saturday 25 November, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini hailed the creation, during a conference in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), of a common Syrian opposition delegation ahead of the upcoming negotiations in Geneva on 28 November.
In Mogherini's view, the agreement on a "united inclusive" opposition delegation for the UN-led intra-Syrian talks "represents an important milestone for the process to move into real negotiations between the two parties". In a press release, Mogherini congratulates Nasr Hariri, the new general coordinator and head of the negotiating team, and says that "Saudi Arabia's successful efforts in hosting the conference have been instrumental".
Mogherini stated that the opposition now has a unified delegation willing to negotiate without preconditions on the agenda set by the UN, and that this, added to the statement of the three Astana guarantors in Sochi, "allows us to now look forward to the next round in Geneva with the strong hope that the way is now paved for concrete decisions between the Syrian parties including on transitional governance, a constitutional process and UN-supervised free and fair elections". On 22 November, the three guarantors – Russia, Turkey and Iran – agreed to bring the Syrian opposition and regime together in a "congress of national dialogue" in order to bring the country out of crisis.
Mogherini underlined the EU's resolve to support the Geneva process "not only from a political and diplomatic point of view, but also with all the economic and humanitarian work developed under the Brussels process".
Stating that the fighting is not over in Syria and that the humanitarian situation is deteriorating, Mogherini called for an end to the attacks on civilians and for the removal of obstacles to humanitarian access. "We count on the active support of the ceasefire guarantors Russia, Iran, and Turkey, to facilitate access to and from the de-escalation areas", she said. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)