United Nations special envoy Staffan de Mistura today declared a “pause” of the Geneva-based Syrian peace talks, saying both sides need to do more before than can be a serious effort.
Advertisement
“I’m not prepared to have talks for the sake of talks”, he said, adding they would resume no later than February 25.
Opposition delegation co-ordinator Riad Hijab said there would be no ceasefire until a transition without President Bashar al-Assad was in place.
All parties in the conflict met in Geneva in a UN-brokered bid to end the five-year war, which has caused more than 250,000 deaths and displaced more than 11 million people.
The source was speaking after the army and allied militia, backed by Russian air strikes, broke through rebel lines on Wednesday to Nubul and al-Zahraa, Shia towns loyal to Damascus lying northwest of Aleppo.
An aid convoy carrying food and medicine is on its way to a besieged town southwest of the Syrian capital, the second humanitarian aid delivery to rebel-held areas near Damascus in as many days, a spokesman for the International Committee for the Red Cross said Wednesday.
The latest aid delivery is a “positive development”, said Basma Kodmani, a member of the opposition’s negotiating team in Geneva, but “it is way below what we are hoping to see happen”.
De Mistura stated the government delegation is pointing procedural issues before discussing the humanitarian issue, set by the High Negotiation Committee (HNC) as a determining issue.
France has blamed the Syrian regime, Russian Federation and their allies for the suspension of Geneva peace talks because of their continuous offensive against the Syrian people. Syrian peace talks scheduled to begin in a week are looking increasingly moot as regional tensions boil over and a string of battlefield victories by government troops further bolster the hand of President Bashar Assad, plunging the rebels into disarray.
Opposition attendees at the talks in Geneva had already been angered at negotiations beginning amid ongoing offensives by the Syrian government backed by Russian Federation.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said the temporary pause in the talks showed “just how deep, how hard the divisions are”. He said it was “past time for them to meet existing obligations and restore the worldwide community’s confidence in their intentions of supporting a peaceful resolution”.
The advance on Nubl and Zahra, reported on Syrian state television, severs a key rebel supply route into the city.
Syrian government forces stand in the village of Tal Jabin, north of the embattled city of Aleppo, as they advanced to break a three-year rebel siege of two government-held Shiite villages, Nubol and Zahraa, and take control of parts of the supply route to the area on February 3, 2016.
Advertisement
The opposition says it will not negotiate unless the government stops bombing civilian areas, lifts blockades on besieged towns and releases detainees.
