PARIS: Syrian President Bashar Assad and his family have “no future” in the war-torn country, the opposition said Sunday after meeting with its support group, the Friends of Syria.

“We all agreed that there is no future for Bashar Assad and his family in Syria,” said Ahmad Jarba, the leader of Syria’s opposition National Coalition. “His departure is inevitable.”

Speaking after a meeting in Paris with the US-led Friends of Syria, he said the group were fully unanimous on the issue.

“We are at a crossroads today in the framework of international decisions regarding the Syrian revolution,” Jarba said.

“We have passed a milestone on the way to the end of the regime.”

However Jarba did not announce whether the opposition would take part in peace talks with representatives of Assad’s regime due to start on January 22 in Switzerland.

The Coalition, which is under intense pressure to confirm its participation and failed to reach a decision after two days of debate in Istanbul last week, has said it will decide on the issue on Friday.

“We emphasised over and over to the opposition representatives that not taking part in the talks would lead to a failure of the discussions or would prevent them from taking place,” said German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. “I hope we convinced them.”

In a statement issued at the end of Sunday’s talks, the 11-nation Friends of Syria urged the opposition to “respond positively” to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s invitation to send a delegation to the Montreux talks.

Meanwhile, United Nations aid chief Valerie Amos said on Sunday the world body hoped a humanitarian donor conference for Syria hosted in Kuwait this week would raise more than last year’s $1.5 billion.

Speaking to Reuters during a visit to Syria ahead of the Wednesday meeting, Amos said the United Nations was looking for a total of $6.5 billion this year to help those suffering from the nearly three-year conflict.

Amos, who met with government officials and visited displaced Syrians, said the situation was getting worse. “The numbers are going up significantly in terms of the numbers of people that we are needing to help here inside Syria, the number of people displaced,” she told Reuters.