Syrian peace talks ran into trouble Sunday with the government delegation denouncing opposition negotiators as “not serious” as Washington urged both sides to seize the moment to end five years of bloodshed.
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The High Negotiations Committee has said the peace talks with the Assad regime can’t get begin until there’s an end to air raids on rebel territory. The Syrian war, which has killed about 250,000 people and forced millions to flee their homes, has presented Europe with an escalated threat of terrorist attacks and a growing refugee problem.
United Nations and Arab League Envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura will hold talks with the opposition today and tomorrow, and will be responsible for the schedule of the negotiations.
And the powerful Army al-Islam rebel group “is here, they are a negotiator”, he told reporters, but said HNC chief negotiator and Army of Islam member Mohammed Alloush had not arrived yet.
On Sunday afternoon, special envoy Staffan de Mistura met with members of the main Syrian opposition group, called the High Negotiations Committee.
“Take the idea of separating Syrian land out of your mind”, he said, adding that “anyone thinking of departing Syria” should be cured of the illusion.
Kerry was one of the main organizers of the Geneva talks, working alongside Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and the 17-nation International Syrian Support Group.
The Syrian government’s delegation head in Geneva, Bashar al-Jaafari, said the government was considering moves such as the creation of humanitarian corridors, ceasefires and prisoner releases, but suggested they might come about as a result of the talks, not before them. The measures were mentioned in a Security Council resolution approved last month that endorsed the peace process for Syria.
The problem, he said, was that the opposition delegation was “not credible”, and that some among the team were considered “terrorists”.
Kerry also said that he had received reports that 16 more people had starved to death Madaya over the weekend.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying two operations “hit the most important stronghold of Shi’ite militias in Damascus”. “The road ahead remains challenging, success is not assured, but we have seen through years of savage fighting what the absence of serious negotiations yields”, he said. The mainstream opposition views both groups as fellow rebels, despite their ideological differences, while the Syrian government and its close ally Russian Federation view them as extremists.
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Ahrar al-Sham, one of the most controversial groups in the HNC because of its ties to Nusra, was not represented in Geneva, HNC spokesman Riad Naasan Agha said.
