BEIRUT/ABU DHABI: Syria’s Western-backed main opposition group’s leadership will meet Sunday in Turkey to name members of a delegation heading to a peace conference this week, a senior member of the Syrian National Coalition said.

Ahmad Ramadan said the Istanbul meeting would decide who would negotiate with the Syrian government delegation in the peace talks scheduled to open Wednesday in the Swiss city of Montreux.

Ramadan’s comments came a day after the Syrian National Coalition voted in favor of attending the conference, paving the way for the first direct talks between the rival sides in the nearly three-year conflict.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal welcomed the decision taken by the Syrian opposition. Speaking to reporters after meeting with his UAE counterpart Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan in Abu Dhabi, Prince Saud emphasized that Geneva-2 aims at creating a political change in Damascus in which Bashar’s regime would have no role.

The aim of the conference, dubbed Geneva 2, is to agree on a roadmap for Syria based on one adopted by the US, Russia and other major powers in June 2012. That plan includes the creation of a transitional government and eventual elections.

Ramadan said the 15-member delegation would include two representatives of the country’s ethnic Kurdish minority, two for the rebels and two for opposition groups based in Syria.

Mustafa Osso, a member of the National Kurdish Council, said they might have two people selected to represent them.

“All the powers of the president and prime minister should be put under the control of the transitional government,” Ramadan said.

A powerful alliance of Syrian fighters rejected the talks on Sunday, meaning that even if the talks reach an unlikely breakthrough in the three year old civil war, it will be harder to implement it on the ground.

The Islamic Front, an alliance of several fighting forces that represents a large portion of the rebels on the ground, said that Syria’s future would be “formulated here on the ground of heroism, and signed with blood on the front lines, not in hollow conferences attended by those who don’t even represent themselves.” The statement came from Abu Omar, a leading member of the Islamic Front.

Separately, Sunday, dozens of people, including some in need of medical treatment, left the besieged rebel-held Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk in Syria’s capital, said a member of Palestinian Struggle Front who goes with the name Abu Jamal. The move came a day after some 200 food parcels were sent into the Yarmouk camp.