The envoy made a decision to suspend the peace talks until February 25, saying “more work” was needed to prepare all sides for the negotiations on ending Syria’s five-year war.
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De Mistura said the mere arrival of a delegation from the main Syrian opposition group, the High Negotiations Committee, at the United Nations offices in Geneva was enough to allow him to declare the talks formally open. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the first steps in peace talks were undermined by increased aerial bombing. United Nations.
Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan said the talks were pointless while President Bashar al-Assad’s forces and Russian Federation continued their attacks in the country.
The conflict that began in March 2011 has killed at least 250,000 people, displaced 11 million and given an opening for the Islamic State group to seize large parts of the country from forces loyal to President Bashar Assad. “The fighting has seen an escalation and regime forces bear the responsibility for that”, Steinmeier said at a news conference with his Saudi counterpart Adel al-Jubeir.
Mourners gesture during the funeral of Mohammed Hijazi, a member of Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement who was killed in combat alongside Syrian government forces in Syria, on February 1, 2016, in the Lebanese capital Beirut.
Once a bustling business center, Aleppo has been divided between rebels in the east and government control in the west since mid-2012.
He underlined that despite many existing hurdles, the Vienna process and Geneva talks remained the only option for finding political solution to the civil war in Syria.
De Mistura took pains to add that the pause did not mean “the end or the failure of the talks”. Previously, rebels invited to the Geneva meeting had said they would pull out unless first the siege of some Syrian cities was lifted, bombardments were halted and prisoners released.
On Wednesday, the troops blasted their way into two Shiite villages in northern Syria, breaking a long-running rebel siege, Syrian TV reported.
French French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius accused Damascus and Russian Federation of “torpedoing the peace efforts” by launching an offensive near Aleppo, and said world powers would hold “in-depth consultations” on their actions at the conference.
The opposition’s chief coordinator Riad Hijab, who diplomats say is a unifying figure for the disparate rebel side, has arrived in Geneva.
The opposition cancelled a meeting with him on Tuesday afternoon, accusing Russian Federation of putting the process at risk with an “unprecedented” bombing campaign on Aleppo and Homs.
The US State Department said the Russian air strikes were harming attempts to secure peace.
The suspension of the talks came as donors were due to gather in London with the aim of raising $9 billion in aid for Syria and to help its neighbors cope with millions of people that have taken refuge on their soil.
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The U.S. and Russia’s participation on airstrikes has also caused tension and contributed to the peace talks’ unsuccessful deliberation.
