Syria Regime ‘At Talks To Buy Time To Kill’

United Nations envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura is meeting again Monday with opposition delegates in Geneva, after making progress in resolving some of the issues the main opposition group wants addressed prior to peace talks.

Khawla Mattar, spokeswoman for special envoy Staffan de Mistura, told AFP there was “the need to meet” with opposition first, and that a meeting with the government would happen “maybe another day”.

The meeting is scheduled for 1700 (1600 GMT).

The opposition was considering a proposal from De Mistura that could pave the way to the delegation pressing ahead with talks after holding their first meeting with him on Sunday, a Western diplomatic source said.

Syria’s war has killed more than 260 000 people since March 2011, while half of the country’s population has fled their homes and millions have become refugees in neighbouring countries and beyond.

“We don’t deal with terrorists”, Jaafari said.

Moscow has said a real chance for peace in Syria “must not be missed” and that “an important turning point has come” with the Geneva talks.

A UN Security Council resolution on December 18 approved a draft resolution on peace process in Syria.

The delegation is seeking a halt to attacks on civilian areas, the release of detainees and a lifting of blockades.

Opposition representatives warn they may walk away from the discussions unless humanitarian conditions improve, while the Syrian government delegation says the blasts in Damascus merely confirm a link between the opposition and terrorism. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has offered no indication he will step aside.

In Washington US Secretary of State John Kerry urged the HNC and the regime to “make the most of this moment” with the future of Syria in mind.

“We are here for political negotiations but we can not start those until we have those gestures”.

GENEVA/BEIRUT Syrian rebels fought back against an offensive by government forces near a supply route into the city of Aleppo on Monday and said there had been no letup in Russian air strikes, despite a promise of goodwill moves by Damascus to spur peace talks.

The powerful Army al-Islam rebel group “is here, they are a negotiator”, Agha told reporters, but said HNC chief negotiator and Army al-Islam member Mohammed Alloush had not arrived yet.

While virtually all parties agree that IS and the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front should be excluded from the talks, the two sides are divided over Ahrar al-Sham and the Army of Islam.

The United Nations is aiming for six months of talks that would focus on achieving a broad ceasefire, while working towards an interim government and finally elections.

However, the Islamic State (IS) group, which is the enemy of both the HNC and the government, claimed it carried out the shrine attack.

The talks are also based on the June 2012 Geneva Communiqué of the Action Group on Syria that called for political transition in the country. “Nevertheless, this process, started in November previous year in Vienna, provides the best and probably only chance to bring to an end the conflict in Syria, which has caused and continues to cause so much suffering to so many”, she said.

The Syrian government views all the groups fighting it as terrorists and instruments of foreign powers such as Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Some of the opposition groups in the umbrella organization are fighting between themselves as much as they are fighting President Assad.