The Syrian peace talks in Geneva may come to a close before they even begin as Syria is threatening to walk out of the talks "if no serious work sessions" are held by Saturday. On the other side of the table, the Syrian opposition has said it will discontinue talks if their demands for the creation of a transitional government does not take place.

Early Friday, opposition delegates said that they will not meet with Syrian government delegates until Syria calls for a transitional government.

The Syrian government says that it will not discuss the removal of Assad, and stated that Assad will remain as president until the next election. Syrian delegates said that at that time, anyone can run in the election for the presidency.

Later in the day, both sides said that they will sit down to meet the opposing side on Saturday. But, no agreements are expected in tommorrow’s talks.

The opening of the Geneva talks had very rocky beginnings as Syrian government delegates delivered a speech that spoke of rebels raping dead women, ripping fetuses from women’s wombs and eating the dead.

On Thursday, the opposition leader, Ahmed Jarba, spoke saying that the international community has determined that Assad needed to step down as president of the war-torn country. “We have started to look into the future without him. Assad and all of his regime is in the past now,” he said. “Nobody should have any doubt that the head of the regime is finished. This regime is dead,” Jarba continued.

No one attending the talks believe that a solution to end the conflict will be found during this round of talks, but there is hope that agreements can be made for local ceasefires, prisoner exchanges and headway made for the delivery of food and humanitarian aid to civilians caught up in the conflict.

The Syrian conflict had its beginnings in 2011 and since that time, an estimated 130,000 people have been killed and more than 22 million people have been displaced.