Meeting between United Nations and Syrian opposition postponed

“Last night and today we are receiving reports of a massive acceleration of Russian and regime military aggression in Aleppo and Homs, including attacks on hospitals and critical infrastructure”, Farah Atassi, spokesman for the High Negotiations Committee (HNC), said.

The Syrian government allowed aid into a rebel-held area near Damascus on Tuesday in what appeared to be a goodwill gesture after U.N.-mediated indirect peace talks got off to a rocky start in Geneva.

Earlier, the HNC said they had planned to give de Mistura a “roadmap” for implementation of their humanitarian demands on Syria that they say must happen before they formally join indirect peace talks with a government delegation in Geneva.

China hopes the Syrian government and opposition delegations will participate in the Geneva talks without preconditions, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said Monday.

The HNC didn’t come for a later meeting scheduled with de Mistura because of an escalation of attacks by Russian and government forces, a representative said on condition of anonymity.

United Nations envoy Staffan de Mistura has shuttled between the government and opposition delegations in Geneva.

The extremist Sunni Muslim group claimed responsibility for multiple blasts on Sunday on a revered Shiite shrine south of Damascus that killed at least 70 people.

“The Russians say they want to destroy Daesh, but they are not bombing Daesh: they are bombing the moderate opposition”, Hammond said.

Senior Syrian opposition negotiator Mohamed Alloush, representing Jaish al-Islam (Islam Army), a major rebel group, said he was not optimistic given the events on the ground.

US Secretary of State John Kerry was in Rome on Tuesday meeting foreign ministers from the US-led coalition against ISIS to discuss efforts to combat the group.

“When I meet the Syrian people they tell me don’t just have a conference, have also something that we can see and touch while you are meeting in Geneva”, de Mistura told reporters late Monday.

The Turkmens are ethnic kin of the Turks and Turkey has been particularly angered by what it says is Russian targeting of them in Syria.

Representatives of the HNC – which includes political and militant opponents of President Bashar al-Assad – have warned that they will not negotiate unless the government stops bombarding civilian areas, lifts blockades and releases detainees.

Moscow has agreed that two Syrian rebel groups taking part in peace talks are doing so on an individual basis.

On Tuesday, Alloush responded to Russia’s about-face saying “the situation in the ground has not changed and as long as the situation stays like that there is no optimism from our side and no good intention to reach a solution by the regime”.

In addition to securing a cease-fire, the talks, which could last for months, are aimed at forming a transitional government and eventually organizing U.N.-backed elections.

Estimates reveal that 250,000 Syrian people have died in the five years since the war started and that more than 4 million people have fled the Middle Eastern country as a result of protracted violence.