Syria’s foreign-backed opposition on Friday selected a chief negotiator for a unified delegation to next week’s UN-brokered peace talks with Syrian government in Geneva.

Nasr al-Hariri, head of the so-called High Negotiations Committee, was picked to lead a 36-member negotiating team for the talks on November 28, after three days of intense negotiations between various opposition groups in Riyadh.

“Hariri was selected as the head of the delegation today,” foreign-backed opposition member Jamal Suleiman told reporters.

The unified delegation will comprise of members from various groups including the High Negotiations Committee (HNC) — the largest bloc in the opposition — as well as the Cairo and Moscow-based platforms.

Syria’s disparate opposition has been under heavy pressure to unify their ranks and row back on some of their more radical demands after a series of battlefield victories that have given the Syrian government the upper hand.

“We expect the other side (Syrian government to come to the negotiations so that we can all move forward in the political process,” Hariri said.

Source: AFP