UN says talks with Syria regime ‘rescheduled’

De Mistura’s office said Sunday that further separate talks would be held on Monday with the opposition and government delegations.

“The UN Security Council and the Syrian government condemned (the attacks)…”

“That was a hard decision for them” at a time when opposition groups affiliated to the Saudi-backed HNC were being pummelled by Syrian regime bombardment and allied Russian air strikes, he said.

The HNC, which only reluctantly showed up late Saturday and held informal talks with de Mistura on Sunday in a Geneva hotel, is hesitating about entering formal indirect talks envisioned under a November roadmap agreed by outside powers.

More than 250,000 people have died and 11 million have fled their homes in nearly five years of civil war in Syria.

The opposition delegation says it needs assurances on halt to attacks on civilian areas, the release of detainees and a lifting of blockades before it steps in for negotiations.

Scheduled meetings come against a backdrop of stalemates as two past initiatives failed to make headway in solving the political crisis pitching Syrian president Bashar al-Assad against anti-government forces, with terrorist factions such as the Islamic State (IS) and Al-Nusra also in the mix.

At least 45 people were killed and 110 wounded on Sunday in three bomb blasts near the revered Shiite shrine of Sayyida Zeinab outside the Syrian capital Damascus, state media said.

Jaafari said he was still waiting for the United Nations envoy to provide a list of the opposition’s negotiating team.

Syria’s state news agency SANA said the bombings went off in Sayyda Zeinab, a predominantly Shiite Muslim suburb of Damascus. “It’s important for us to stop this massacre”, said Salim Al-Muslat, Higher Negotiations Committee spokesperson. The HNC – backed by Washington and Riyadh – delegation is headed by Mohammed Alloush, who is a member of Jaish al-Islam, which is considered a terrorist organisation by Russian Federation.

De Mistura first met with the group on Monday, declaring it the official start to the first attempt at negotiations since previous Syrian peace talks failed two years ago.

The Swedish-Italian diplomat said he expected the talks to be “complicated and hard”, but that Syria’s people deserved to “see something concrete, apart from a long, painful negotiation”.

“Regarding Syria talks, this period is decisive”, Lavrov said at a press conference in Abu Dhabi with Emirati counterpart Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan.

 The UN’s top human rights official, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, said on Monday that war crimes and crimes against humanity in Syria should not be covered by any amnesty deal.