Head of the Syrian government delegation to Geneva stressed that the current talks in the Swiss capital could continue despite the withdrawal of Riyadh-backed opposition group.

Head of the Syrian government delegation to Geneva stressed that the current talks in the Swiss capital could continue despite the withdrawal of Riyadh-backed opposition group.

Chief negotiator in Damascus delegation, Bashar al-Jaafari said on Tuesday the talks can continue with other opposition groups.

The High Negotiations Committee (HNC), which was formed in Saudi Arabia, did not hold a monopoly among opposition groups," Jaafari told Reuters.

"If they want to boycott, they can boycott. It's not a big problem for us because they are not the only representatives of the Syrian opposition," he said.

The HNC on Monday postponed indefinitely formal negotiations, under the pretext that the Syrian government is ‘violating the ceasefire in Syria.’
"The arguments used by the Saudi group are not convincing," Jaafari stressed.

Other opposition groups include the "Moscow-Astana platform" and "Cairo platform", which the United Nations has consulted during the indirect talks but does not give the same importance to as the HNC.

"The other groups don't share the same assessment (of events on the ground) and this is why the talks will continue as smoothly as possible," Jaafari said.

He accused the HNC of repeatedly creating problems since the beginning of the process and threatening to pause or adjourn the negotiations because they were waiting on instructions from their Saudi, Turkish and Qatari backers.

"It's filibustering as you call it in United Nations' language," Jaafari, who is also Damascus' envoy to the United Nations. "They are filibustering to torpedo the whole talks."

Responding to the HNC and Western assertions that the government's actions were behind the breakdown in negotiations, Jaafari pointed to calls by insurgents’ military commanders in Geneva to attack the Syrian army as evidence they were the cause.

"Those complaining about the Syrian government doing this and that are the ones who did it," he said, adding that "radical, terrorist elements within the HNC were dominating decision-making mechanisms.”