UN Syria envoy: Peace talks between Damascus & opposition to start January 29

The office of the United Nations special envoy for Syria says it has sent out invitations for peace talks later this week in Geneva – though it won’t specify to whom.

He added that the “proximity talks” between the two sides are expected to last six months.

Under that system, local children would be schooled in the mornings and early afternoons, and refugee boys and girls would use the same classrooms in late afternoon and early evening.

She said they had all planned to meet in Switzerland ahead of the talks to discuss strategy. Threats to pull out should be expected.

He warned the talks would be stormy, with “a lot of posturing, a lot of walk-outs and walk-ins”.

He says the main obstacles to achieving a peace agreement are lack of trust and lack of political will. The important thing is that we keep the momentum.

Aliko said it would take a final decision on whether to attend the talks in a meeting on Tuesday.

“We are not going to give today what we did not give over the past five years”, he said.

“De Mistura also echoed Russia’s demands”. If they are not serious, war will continue. “But what we are trying to do is to make absolutely certain that when they start everyone is clear about roles and what’s happening so you don’t go there and wind up with a question mark or a failure”.

Years of high-level diplomacy have so far yielded no progress towards ending or even curbing the fighting.

“The position of the United States is and hasn’t changed, that we are still supporting the opposition politically, financially and militarily”, he added.

Aided with Russian airstrikes, the Syrian troops managed to retake Rabia from rebels in the government’s stronghold Latakia province.

But, he notes the Security Council considers Islamic State and the Al Nusra Front as terrorist organizations, so they will not be invited. Russian Federation favours the Kurds’ inclusion.

They have been delayed until Friday by disagreements among global and regional powers about who to invite from among the various opposition groups.

For its part, Russia, which is fighting alongside Assad, has tried to ensure that its own list of politicians opposed to the Syrian government are invited. Past attempts at negotiating peace in Syria have also coincided with intensified violence by the regime, moves that opposition members have seen as an attempt by the government to gain leverage in talks.

A “broad ceasefire” is the first priority for Syria’s war-weary people, according to the UN’s Syria envoy, announcing a new date for peace talks to begin.

“There are efforts among some countries to water down the opposition”.

Meanwhile, a suicide bomber driving a fuel tank blew himself up on Monday at a checkpoint run by Islamist group Ahrar Al Sham in Syria’s northern city of Aleppo killing at least 23 people, a monitoring group said.

“It’s a major pullback for us, but it is not over”. As Al Hayat has noted, that implicitly would grant legitimacy and “an official status” to the Shiite militias Iran has built in Syria to support Assad. Igor Konashenkov, said that the military has no intention to set up any additional air base in Qamishli or advance airfields in Syria. The coming target is Idlib, a rebel stronghold, said a military source.