Saudi Arabia hosting Syrian opposition ahead of peace talks

BEIRUT (AP) — Saudi Arabia is hosting Syrian opposition groups and many of the main rebel factions next week in an effort to come up with a unified front ahead of peace talks with Syrian government representatives scheduled to begin early next year.

The meeting is the first of its kind in the kingdom, a main backer of the opposition, underscoring how the internationally backed effort is the most serious yet to end the nearly five-year civil war, which has killed more than a quarter of a million people and triggered a refugee crisis of massive proportions.

At the three-day gathering that starts Tuesday in Riyadh, the factions will try to form a unified opposition delegation and a platform regarding what is meant to be a transitional period in Syria, officials who were invited said.

[...] among the invited are two of the biggest — Jaysh al-Islam and the ultraconservative Ahrar al-Sham group that has been for months trying to improve its image and market itself as a moderate faction, said Ibrahim Hamidi, a journalist who covers Syrian affairs for the Saudi-owned newspaper Al Hayat.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said last month that the Syrian government has already put forward to the U.N. special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, the makeup of its delegation to the upcoming negotiations.

On Thursday, Iyad Ameen Madani, the secretary general of the world's largest body of Muslim nations, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, appealed to the Syrian opposition leaders to close ranks and make the legitimate demands of the Syrian people for change, reform and reconstruction of institutions.