UN talks on Syria are scheduled to begin in Geneva later this week, despite the continuing failure to decide who will represent the rebels fighting to overthrowBashar al-Assad, and a lack of agreement on other key issues, the organisation has announced. Staffan de Mistura, the UN envoy for Syria, said on Monday that he planned to issue invitations on Tuesday with indirect “proximity” talks between the Syrian sides to begin on 29 January. They are expected to go on for six months. “It will be uphill anyway,” he predicted, apparently seeking to lower expectations of progress.
The talks had originally been slated to begin on Monday. Two previous conferences in Geneva in 2012 and 2014 failed to narrow gaps, let alone end the bloodiest crisis emerging from the Arab spring. “This is not Geneva 3,” De Mistura told reporters at the UN office in the Swiss city. “This is leading to what we hope will be a Geneva success story if we are able to push it forward.”
Syrian opposition officials, complaining of mounting pressure from the US to attend the talks without preconditions, are to meet in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on Tuesday to discuss their final position.
A rebel negotiating committee, comprising political and armed groups, has insisted that talks cannot begin until airstrikes are halted, government sieges of opposition-held territory are lifted and detainees are freed.
Russia has been pressing hard for the inclusion of Syrians it supports as well as objecting to Islamist representatives it describes as terrorists. Kurdish participation is another bone of contention that Turkey is especially concerned about.
The UN envoy made clear that there would be no grand opening and that progress, if any, would be halting. “There will be a lot of posturing and walkouts,” De Mistura said.
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