The meeting followed de Mistura’s announcement Monday that indirect talks between the bitter foes in the nearly five-year conflict had at last begun in earnest. However, the group questioned how long the delegation would stay.
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Members of the opposition said Saturday night that they would not sit down with the government or engage in any formal negotiations until sieges were lifted and bombardment of civilians stopped – measures mandated by specific United Nations resolutions on Syria as well as by worldwide law.
Kerry said “The bloodshed will drag on without negotiations”.
However, Mr de Mistura’s office said his morning appointment with the government’s delegation had been rescheduled because he first wanted to have an official meeting with the HNC delegation. Even as talks inched forward Monday in Geneva, Syrian rebels faced a government offensive near a supply route to Aleppo and saw no respite from Russian airstrikes.
The Geneva peace talks mark the first attempt in two years to hold negotiations over Syria, whose war has drawn in regional and global powers and forced millions from their homes and into neighboring states and Europe.
Kerry said there was “no military solution” to the spiralling crisis, which he warned could engulf the region if the tentative UN-sponsored negotiations fail as previous attempts have.
The non-jihadist opposition, including political exiles, fear that the decision by Russian Federation to join the war on the regime side means that Bashar al-Assad, Syrian president, is less likely to negotiate seriously, thinking he can win the war militarily.
The opposition is demanding the release of political prisoners, especially women and children, as a goodwill gesture.
Syria’s state news agency SANA said the bombings went off in Sayyda Zeinab, a predominantly Shiite Muslim suburb of Damascus.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government forces were gaining ground in the area, and had captured most of the village of Duweir al-Zeitun near Bashkoy. The short informal meeting addressed issues relating to the talks, said a statement. “The sieges have become total”, she said, adding later that her delegation was likely to stay at least three to four days in Geneva.
Britain said Monday that the UN-brokered peace talks on Syria being held in Geneva must lead to a political “transition away” from President Bashar al-Assad.
“Two soldiers of the caliphate carried out martyrdom operations in a den of the infidels in the Sayyida Zeinab area, killing almost 50 and injuring around 120”, it said.
State TV footage showed several burning cars and a torched bus, as well as blown out windows and large holes in the facade of a nearby apartment tower.
The heavily populated area in the south of the city is a site of pilgrimage for Shiites from Iran, Lebanon and other parts of the Muslim world.
Daesh has been excluded from the talks as the United Nations has classified it a terrorist group.
“This is our stance and this is the stance of so many parties in the support group and they consider these groups terrorist groups”, he said.
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Iraqi and Iranian Shi’ite militia groups that have volunteered to fight Sunni Islamist radicals in Syria in a conflict that has heavy sectarian overtones often say they are coming to Syria to defend the shrine.
