Syria's National Coordination Committee (NCC) opposition faction welcomes efforts by Moscow to attract both the opposition forces and the Damascus authority to the upcoming Syrian peace talks, a member of the group, Mohammed Hijazi, told reporters Thursday. "We support the position of Russia and Egypt, and welcome the efforts of Russia to attract opposition and the official authorities to the negotiations. We are ready to meet at any place to start a political process," Hijazi said. The opposition representative expressed hope that Russia would pressure the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad to "sit at the negotiating table" to identify and implement a political settlement. Moscow has been involved in international efforts to resolve the ongoing civil war in Syria, hosting two rounds of negotiation talks between the government and the opposition in 2015. On Tuesday, several members of the NCC, including members of various Syrian political opposition parties as well as civic activists, arrived in Moscow to meet with officials from the Russian Foreign Ministry and Russian lawmakers before a second round of international Vienna talks on the Syrian crisis scheduled for Saturday. Earlier on Thursday, the coalition leader of Syria's Popular Front for Change and Liberation said that representatives from Damascus and the opposition have not been invited to the Syrian talks on reconciliation slated for November 14 in Vienna. "No, they weren't invited. This issue will be discussed because there is no agreement on defining who the opposition is. [Russian Foreign Minister Sergei] Lavrov suggested making a list in order to understand [who they are], and I think that Vienna will be an important step to inviting the opposition and the [current] regime," Qadri Jamil told RIA Novosti. Syria has been mired in a civil war between the government and opposition groups as well as terrorists since 2011.
