Thomson ReutersUN mediator for Syria de Mistura attends a news conference after a meeting with a delegation of the HNC during Syria peace in GenevaGENEVA (Reuters) – Syria’s government must do more to present its ideas about a political transition and not merely talk about principles of the peace process, United Nations mediator Staffan de Mistura said on Friday after a fifth day of peace talks.
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The Syrian war has killed more than 250,000 people and displaced nearly half the country’s pre-war population of 23 million.
He praised the main opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC) for offering “substantive” plans for a transition yesterday. “They had gone deeper and I must say I am quite impressed by the level of depth in which they have been ready to engage the facilitator, the mediator, my team with substantial points regarding their own vision of governance, hence political transition”, he indicated.
“I hope next week… that we will get their opinion, their details, on how they see the political transition taking place”, de Mistura told reporters as he wrapped up a week of negotiations.
“With all respect to some people who were invited by Mr de Mistura as consultants or whatever, most of them, they were sent by the regime”, Muslat said.
But the HNC has made the departure of Assad an unalterable demand, while Damascus has termed any talk of the president’s removal “a red line”.
Acknowledging the “large” distance between the two sides, de Mistura said his goal in the coming days was to look for glimpses of common ground between the HNC and Damascus to identify what he described as “the grey zones”.
“We don’t see seriousness in the other side, we see procrastination”, he told reporters.
By contrast, HNC representative Bassma Kodmani said the Assad delegation is seeking to play for time and isn’t being genuine about the desire to reach an agreement.
De Mistura added that there were “no discussions about federalism” – a reference to the main Syrian Kurdish group’s declaration earlier in the day of a de facto federal region in Kurdish-controlled areas of northern Syria.
The Syrian government has shown “a high level of cooperation” in allowing aid deliveries, said Borodavkin, who called on rebel groups to reciprocate by easing their blockades. She says WFP is speaking with partners inside the Syrian city of Deir el-Zour to try to improve drop-zone conditions.
If the talks make progress before pausing on March 24, a second round of negotiations is tentatively scheduled for next month in which Kurdish leaders could possibly be included.
De Mistura asserted that the Russian-American efforts that parallel the dialogue in Geneva are beneficial to pushing forward towards resolving the crisis in Syria, and that the upcoming meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry will be very important.
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a partial pullout of Russian aircraft and forces this week, in support of the Geneva peace talks that are now underway in Switzerland between representatives of the Syrian government and the Western-backed opposition.
Russian Federation this week announced a surprise pullout of most of its forces from Syria in a move that President Vladimir Putin said was aimed at supporting the peace process.
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