Members of the National Coalition are meeting in Istanbul to elect a new leader to replace Sheikh Moaz al-Khatib and formulate its positions before the Geneva conference.

BBC: Syria conflict: Opposition willing to attend talks

All of this is certainly not to mention the fact that groups like Al Qaeda, Islamic Jihad, Jemiyat al-Islamiyah and numerous others routinely violate the Geneva Convention with respect to their practices of directly targeting civilians.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Amnesty ignorant again

Neither al- Qaida nor the Taliban however is a nation or a signatory to the Geneva Conventions.

NPR: High Court Hears Challenge to Military Tribunals

Coming under heavy fire from the British media on Tuesday about the U.S. insistence that the Al Qaeda prisoners were unlawful combatants and therefore not subject to the rules of the Geneva Convention, Blair's press spokesman repeatedly said that it was not for the UK to intervene in the treatment of the prisoners.

CNN: Straw defends detainees rights

" Furthermore, "The U.S. has for over two decades expressly rejected a treaty - the 1977 Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions - that would have vested terrorists with Geneva protections....if we're going to have such a treaty with al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations, it will have to be a new one.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: A treaty with al Qaeda?