‘Syrian government is now ready to talk with armed groups’

Syria is prepared to talk to armed opposition groups, the minister for national reconciliation said yesterday, the first time the government has offered to hold direct negotiations with rebel forces it long dismissed as terrorists. It was not clear if the comments by Ali Haidar, who is not in President Bashar al-Assad’s inner circle of decision-makers, reflect a substantive changein policy. Assad said in January that there would be no dialogue with people he called traitors or “puppets made by the West”. The political chasm between the government and rebels and a lack of opposition influence over rebel fighters has allowed fighting to rage on for 23 months in Syria. The United Nations says almost 70,000 people have been killed. An international diplomatic deadlock has prevented effective intervention. Syrian authorities have given no formal response to several offers of talks by the main opposition coalition. Haidar said last week that Damascus had not received an invitation to talks. “We, the government and me personally, will meet, without exceptions, Syrian opposition groups inside and outside (Syria),” he said yesterday during a parliamentary session. “The President of the...