The opposition, represented by the Riyadh-based High Negotiations Committee (HNC), had held off on committing to the talks but on March 7 said the 10-day-old “cessation of hostilities” was making a difference.
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A spokeswoman for UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said on Tuesday that delegations to the talks are likely to arrive in Geneva, Switzerland, in several days.
AFP reported Monday that it had been told by a Syrian state source that President Bashar al-Assad administration had been invited to a new round of peace talks “starting March 14 in Geneva”.
United NationsRussia has already delivered about 620 tons of humanitarian aid as well as medicine to war-torn districts in Syria, Konashenkov said, adding that Russian Federation is also ready to allocate vehicles from its Hmeimim airbase in Syria for the transportation of humanitarian goods.
HNC member Riad Nassan Agha said a final decision on attending the Geneva talks would depend on issues including the degree of compliance with the truce and progress towards easing humanitarian conditions.
Russian Federation and the United States are on opposing sides of the conflict – Moscow backs Assad and Washington supports the opposition – but have made a concerted push for the truce and further peace efforts to succeed. It does not apply to terrorist groups operating in the country.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, said fighting killed more civilians in the past two days than in the previous eight days combined. The most recent round collapsed last month as the Syrian government launched a new ground offensive.Hijab said that while the Russian airstrikes have become less frequent, the Syrian government has continued to attack rebels. These were among the main preconditions for the opposition to attend the indirect peace talks.
“The delegation is expected to arrive on Friday”.
Moscow, which has provided a daily account of ceasefire violations, said on Monday that the truce was still “in general” holding apart from unspecified “isolated provocations and shelling” . The Observatory said Nusra Front fighters led the assault on Al-Eis hill on Monday night, but did not capture it.
“Just a few minutes before we came on this conference there was a massacre committed by the air forces of the Russians and the regime in Abu Dhuhour”, he said, referring to a settlement in eastern Idlib governorate.
The Syrian army has said very little about operations in western areas of Syria covered by the agreement, though it has said operations against Nusra continue.
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Beginning a Middle East tour in the United Arab Emirates on Monday, US Vice President Joe Biden used an Arab acronym for IS and said that America would “aqueeze the heart out of Daesh in Iraq and Syria”.
