JEDDAH: Bashar Assad should stop playing games and engage seriously with the UN-sponsored peace process, Yahya Al-Aridi, the Syrian opposition spokesman at the Geneva talks, told Arab News on Tuesday.
Al-Aridi dismissed reports that UN envoy Staffan de Mistura had told the opposition it no longer enjoyed international support and that failed Geneva negotiations would be replaced by a peace and reconciliation conference proposed by Russia.
“The role of the international broker is to facilitate the process and he has no right to decide that this side is with us or not with us,” he said. “We have the strongest thing, which is the will of the Syrian people … which we consider as trust.”
International resolutions were the only regulator for the negotiating process, Al-Aridi said. “We rely on them, and any tactics or attempts to abort this are unacceptable to us.
“The international community remains committed to UN Security Council Resolution 2254, and its implementation through talks in Geneva, not elsewhere.”
Although the Assad regime has again rejected the opposition’s demand for political transition without Assad, Al-Aridi said: “De Mistura has asked both sides to engage without pre-conditions. We have done so.” He said the regime “should stop playing games and take the opportunity to engage in serious negotiation. Political transition is the only way to make Syria safe for our people to come home.”
De Mistura was also reported as saying that regime change in Syria was possible only through the constitution or elections. Al-Aridi replied: “The UN envoy is conducting the talks in Geneva according to the mandate given to him by Resolution 2254. At the heart of the resolution is political transition. This has not changed.”
The opposition’s strategy, he said, “remains the same, to implement Resolution 2254, through negotiations chaired by the UN in Geneva.”
Al-Aridi said later that the delegation of the High Negotiations Committee had many criteria, mainly the demands of the Syrian people. “There are international resolutions through which the main elements of the political transition can be discussed, and no one can evade these criteria and resolutions.”
Meanwhile, the Kremlin said Russia would keep a naval and an air base in Syria capable of carrying out strikes against insurgents if required after a partial military pullout announced by President Vladimir Putin.
The first Russian troops returned home on Tuesday, beginning the withdrawal from a mission widely seen as decisive in swinging the war in Assad’s favor.
The Kremlin has presented the partial pullout of its forces as evidence that its mission in Syria has been largely accomplished.
Some troops were welcomed by small crowds holding patriotic banners in ceremonies with Soviet-era music in the background. Others were greeted by senior military officials.
Assad urged to ‘stop playing games and start serious talks’
Assad urged to ‘stop playing games and start serious talks’
Tourism on hold as Middle East war casts uncertainty
- Cancelled flights, postponed trips and a great deal of uncertainty: the war in the Middle East is casting a long shadow over the tourism outlook for the region
PARIS: Cancelled flights, postponed trips and a great deal of uncertainty: the war in the Middle East is casting a long shadow over the tourism outlook for a region that has become a prized destination for travelers worldwide.
“My last group of tourists left three days ago, and all the other groups planned for March have been canceled,” said Nazih Rawashdeh, a tour guide near Irbid, in northern Jordan.
“This is the start of the high season here. It’s catastrophic,” he told AFP.
“And yet there’s no problem in Jordan. It’s perfectly safe.”
Across the world, tour operators are scrambling to find solutions for clients stranded in the region or who had trips planned there.
“The priority is getting those already there back home,” said Alain Capestan, president of the French tour operator Comptoir des Voyages.
He said however that the war was also affecting customers who have traveled to other parts of the world, as the Gulf region is home to several major aviation hubs — Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha.
Like other companies, the German tour operators surveyed by AFP — Alltours, Dertour, Schauinsland-Reisen — announced they would cover the cost of extra nights for clients stranded in the Middle East. They also canceled trips to the UAE and Oman until at least March 7.
Swiss operator MSC Cruises, which has a ship stranded in Dubai, told AFP on Thursday it was sending five charter flights to airlift nearly 1,000 passengers.
The firm said it expected the passengers to be out of the region by Saturday, without specifying the destinations of the flights or the nationalities of the holidaymakers.
The British travel industry association ABTA said agencies “would not be sending customers to the region for as long as the British Foreign Office advises against all non-essential travel.”
Customers whose holidays were canceled in recent days will be able to rebook or receive a refund, it said.
- Economic impact -
The war is disrupting a sector that had been booming in the region.
According to UN Tourism, in 2025 around 100 million tourists visited the Middle East — nearly seven percent of all international tourists recorded worldwide. That figure had grown three percent year-on-year and 39 percent compared to the pre-pandemic period.
Depending on the destination, Europeans make up a large share of visitors, followed by tourists from South Asia, the Americas, and other Middle Eastern countries.
For example, nearby markets accounted for 26 percent of total visitors to Dubai in 2025, according to its Ministry of Tourism and Economy.
Against this backdrop analysts Oxford Economics warns that “a decline in tourist flows to the region will deal a more severe economic blow than in the past, as tourism’s share of GDP has grown, as has employment in the sector.”
“We estimate inbound arrivals to the Middle East could decline 11-27 percent year-on-year in 2026 due to the conflict, compared to our December forecast that projected 13 percent growth,” said Director of Global Forecasting Helen McDermott.
That would translate, according to the firm, to between 23 and 38 million fewer international visitors compared to the prior scenario, and a loss of $34 to $56 billion in tourist spending.
After Covid and then the conflict in Gaza, tourists had been coming back, said Rawashdeh, the Jordanian tour guide.
“For the past six months, people working in tourism here had hope. And now there’s a war. This is going to be terrible for the economy,” he said.
“We’ve definitely noticed an understandable slowdown in new bookings from our partners right now, but we fully expect that to bounce back as soon as things settle down and travelers feel more confident,” said Ibrahim Mohamed, marketing director of Middle East Travel Alliance, which offers direct tours to American and British operators.
He remains optimistic: “The Middle East has always been an incredibly resilient market, and demand always bounces back fast once stability returns.”
