Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held talks with Syrian National Coalition (SNC) leader Ahmad Jarba on Tuesday, Feb. 4. Following the talks — which took place in Moscow and focused on the temporarily halted peace conference in Switzerland — Jarba confirmed to Russian media that the SNC will come to Geneva on February 10.

The Syrian National Coalition says it will take part in the second round of Geneva 2 talks. Russia says the Syrian government expressed “no doubts” that it will also attend, adding that it plans to send a shipment of chemical agents out of the country.

“We have agreed to take part in Geneva [peace] conference to fulfill the Geneva Communiqué…We have stated our intention to take part in the second round of talks on February 10,” Jarba said, as quoted by Interfax.

The Coalition has decided it must “follow the way of political settlement” of the Syrian conflict despite all odds during the first round of talks and the latest offensive from government forces on the ground, Jarba added.

The much-awaited and much-delayed Geneva 2 peace talks broke up with no sign of progress last week as the opposing sides repeatedly accused one another of being “terrorists,” failing to move forward even on humanitarian issues. 

Last year’s agreement to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons left Assad in a strengthened position, and there appears little chance rebels will soon force him from power, the U.S. intelligence chief told Congress on Tuesday.

“The prospects are right now that (Assad) is actually in a strengthened position than when we discussed this last year, by virtue of his agreement to remove the chemical weapons, as slow as that process has been,” said James Clapper, director of national intelligence.

Clapper, testifying at a U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee hearing, did not specify why the September agreement on chemical arms had boosted Assad’s position.