The United Nations Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, says “intense disagreements” about who should be involved in indirect peace talks between the Syrian government and opposition groups stopped them starting.
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The Geneva talks are the first since discussions collapsed two years ago and there is still no confirmation of when, if at all, they will begin.
Diplomats have bickered for days about who to invite to participate in the talks, given the fractured parties on all sides.
He told reporters in Geneva, that he did not want any repeat of earlier talks which excluded some factions, and said that the “broadest possible spectrum” needed to be represented. Since then, opposition groups amassed forces and waged a protracted war that has left up to 300,000 people dead and displaced million internally and sparked a refugee crisis and humanitarian disaster.
So far, opposition figures have refused to back off its demand that Assad leave power and the president refusing to step down. Invitations would be issued Tuesday, de Mistura added without specifying the groups that would be asked to take part. “We are going to know very quickly, in a month or two or three, whether these guys are serious”. “It is an worldwide resolution at least part of which must be implemented, so we see there is seriousness and good will in this matter”, Muslat said on Saudi-owned Arabic news channel Arabiya al-Hadath.
Salem Meslet, spokesman for the opposition Supreme Committee for Negotiations, a Saudi-backed body, insisted the government should lift sieges imposed on several rebel-held areas around the country before any talks take off.
Once there was progress on a ceasefire, the envoy added, the talks would focus on governance, a new constitution and elections. Negotiations are expected to last for six months.
“The suspension of fighting regarding ISIL in particular and Al Nusra is not on the table”.
Perhaps most significantly, according to the Arab media reports based on leaks from the Kerry/HNC meeting the secretary of state did not rule out the idea that President Bashar al-Assad could stand for re-election in the future if he wished to do so. And none of the injuries are from bullets: “it is all due to shrapnel from missiles, proof of how we are struggling to fend off Russian air strikes”, Firas Pasa, a leader of an ethnic Turkmen rebel group told Reuters in Gaziantep, Turkey, near the border.
Securing a ceasefire and space to deliver humanitarian aid to suffering Syrians will be among the first priorities, he said.
The communique also dictates “a political transition that meets the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people”, a much debated string of text that some interpret as Assad’s ouster, which the United States wants but which Russian Federation has rejected.
Even if Assad were to play ball, there are so many other players in the war that it may be impossible to get them all to agree on a single path to peace. “It was more speculation than a direct warning, but people understood this as a threat”.
He denied he was pressuring the opposition to include either the country’s powerful Kurdish forces or politicians on good terms with Moscow.
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In the meantime, prominent Syrian opposition groups such as Alwiyat Seif al-Sham warned anew they will boycott the talks if Damascus balks on new concessions, including the lifting of blockades, ending aerial bombing raids, and releasing prisoners.
