Head of the so-called Syrian National Coalition (SNC) Ahmad Jarba said on Sunday the opposition would not attend proposed peace talks in Geneva unless there was a clear timeframe for Assad to leave power.

Jarba told an Arab League emergency meeting in Cairo that there should be a clear timeframe for replacing Assad and he also said that they will not participate if Iran is present in the talks.

Russia and some Western countries have been trying to bring the two sides of the Syria conflict to the negotiating table to find a solution to the 30-month-old conflict, which has killed more than 115,000 people.

Syrian government has announced its readiness for the talks without any pre-conditions while the western-backed opposition which his suffering from deep internal conflicts has been refusing to attend, citing different excuses.

The opposition which has shown signs of deep divisions in the past months is facing with great internal power struggles that have left the group unable to adopt a unique stance.

Tens of militants groups, many of them linked to al-Qaeda, had already rejected the Geneva talks and announced that participating in negotiations was an act of treason.

The opposition is pushing for Assad’s departure while it has never given a plan for the country.

Their alliance to al-Qaeda-linked groups and their reluctance to cooperate for ending the war has caused many of their supporters to side with the government.

The war in Syria started in March 2011, when pro-reform protests turned into a massive insurgency following the intervention of Western and regional states.

The unrest, which took in terrorist groups from across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, has transpired as one of the bloodiest conflicts in recent history.

According to the United Nations, more than 100,000 people have been killed and millions displaced due to the turmoil that has gripped Syria for over two years.

SHI/SHI