REPORT: Syrian Coalition says it agrees to join international peace talks

The main Syrian political opposition group in exile, the Syrian National Coalition, has agreed to attend internationally sponsored peace talks beginning in Switzerland next week, the Coalition's media office said on Saturday.        

The "Geneva 2" talks with representatives from President Bashar al-Assad's government start in Montreux on Wednesday.        

Out of around 73 Syrian National Coalition members who voted, 58 backed the motion to attend and 14 voted against. Another 44 had already withdrawn from the vote.

This comes after representatives of major Syrian rebel militias met in Ankara to try to agree a common stance on internationally sponsored peace talks beginning in Switzerland next week, opposition sources said.      

Ahmad Al-Jarba, head of the Syrian National Coalition, told the SNC's general assembly in Silivri near Istanbul that the rebel militias had met, a source in the president's office said. He declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the talks.          

One rebel commander had said the Islamic Front was expected to attend the meeting, but another opposition source said the group had not been present at the talks.

A diplomatic source reported earlier that Turkey and Qatar called on four Syrian rebel groups, including the Islamic Front, to meet in Ankara in order to inform them of the benefit of the peace talks to be held in Geneva.

On another note, a delegation of Russian MPs arrived to Syria in order to help strengthen Russia’s positions in the peaceful settlement of the Syrian crisis.

Besieged Yarmouk camp:
 
A Palestinian official said food supplies have begun entering a besieged rebel-held Palestinian refugee camp in Syria's capital for the first time in months.    

Anwar Raja, a spokesman for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, said the first batch of supplies entered the Yarmouk camp on Saturday.           

Yarmouk is one of the areas hardest hit by food shortages in Syria. Residents there say 46 people have died since October of starvation, illnesses exacerbated by hunger or because they couldn't obtain medical aid.          

Raja had no immediate word on how many supplies entered the camp. He said much of the material was carried "on the shoulders" of PFLP-GC members and committees in the camp.             
PFLP-GC members are fighting against Syrian opposition fighters who control most of the camp.