GENEVA -- The latest bid to end five years of war in Syria gathered some momentum as the main opposition group arrived in Geneva for United Nations-sponsored talks, though it refused to lift a threat to boycott the peace process.
The Saudi-backed Higher Negotiating Committee, whose delegation landed in the Swiss city on Saturday, said it will have its first meeting with Staffan de Mistura, the U.N.'s special envoy for Syria, today.
The committee reiterated demands, drawn from a U.N. Security Council resolution on the peace process, for an end to airstrikes by Russia and government forces. "If the regime insists on carrying out these war crimes against civilians, there will no justification for the delegation to remain in Geneva," the group said in a statement on its Facebook page.
The U.S. and European countries welcomed the opposition's decision, which boosts the most serious effort so far to end the conflict after two previous failed peace conferences. The Syrian war, which has killed 250,000 people, has left Europe facing an escalated threat from terrorist attacks and a growing migrant problem.
De Mistura, who met a delegation sent by Syrian President Bashar Assad on Friday, said the opposition's participation was the best way to secure their demands, which also include prisoner releases and the lifting of sieges of rebel-held Syrian towns.
The peace efforts to end the conflict come as Assad's forces, backed by Russian air power, are making progress against Islamic State militants as well as the rebel forces supported by Turkey, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations.
The U.N.-sponsored negotiations, which are expected to take place over several months, are being held in a so-called proximity format. This will involve de Mistura shuttling between the government delegation and two opposition factions -- a second opposition group is made up of Moscow-friendly figures.
The U.S. and Russia, which have taken the lead in promoting the Syrian peace process, secured an agreement among major powers in November for a timetable that would see a power-sharing government by mid-2016. Elections would follow a year later after changes to the constitution. The warring sides must also agree to a nationwide cease-fire, except for offensives that target Islamic State and the al-Qaida-affiliated Nusra Front.
The conflict has forced millions to flee, provoking the worst migrant crisis in Europe since World War II. It's also helped the rise of Islamic State, a militant organization with a stronghold in Syria and Iraq that has spread into regional neighbors including Yemen, Egypt, Libya and Afghanistan, and poses a growing threat farther afield. The group claimed responsibility for attacks last year that brought down a Russian airliner in Egypt in October with 224 people on board and that killed 130 people in Paris in November.
In Jordan, the prime minister warned Saturday that it will be "very, very difficult" to keep absorbing Syrian refugees unless his country receives significant economic aid and easier access to European markets.
Abdullah Ensour made the link between refugee admissions and aid in comments Saturday during a visit to the Azraq refugee camp. He spoke ahead of this week's Syria conference, where pledges of some $9 billion are being sought for 2016.
More than 4 million Syrians have fled their homeland. Most live in overburdened regional host countries such as Jordan, which has taken in about 630,000.
Deteriorating conditions in the host countries driven by aid shortfalls have prompted hundreds of thousands to move to Europe.
The aid conference in London will try to find ways to keep more refugees in the region, including by putting large numbers to work and making them less dependent on aid. Currently, most refugees are not allowed to work in Jordan and Lebanon, which face high domestic unemployment.
Ensour on Saturday warned of possible changes in Jordan's refugee policy.
"We have opened our borders," he said. "We will continue to do so provided that others come and help us help the Syrians ... I don't mean just sending cash or grants. I want them to help the economy at large, that's to say help the budget, help export ... our products because if these people [Syrians] have to join the industry, then the industry has to sell elsewhere."
If such support is not received, "then it would be very, very difficult for us to continue the way that we did in the past," he added.
Information for this article was contributed by Henry Meyer and Dana Khraiche of Bloomberg News, and by Omar Akour of The Associated Press.
A Section on 01/31/2016