BEIRUT/AMMAN/GENEVA: A Syrian military offensive threatened critical rebel supply lines into the northern city of Aleppo on Tuesday and Damascus echoed its opponents in contradicting a UN envoy’s assertion peace talks had begun.
UN envoy Staffan De Mistura announced the formal start on Monday of the first attempt in two years to negotiate an end to a war that has killed 250,000 people, caused a refugee crisis in the region and Europe and empowered Daesh.
But both opposition and government representatives have since said the talks have not in fact begun and fighting on the ground raged on without constraint.
A rebel commander told Reuters he was deploying reinforcements including US-made anti-tank missiles to the Aleppo frontline for what he described as a “decisive battle.”
The main Syrian opposition council said after meeting De Mistura on Monday it had not and would not negotiate unless the government stopped bombarding civilian areas, lifted blockades and released detainees. The head of the Syrian government delegation also denied talks had started after discussions with De Mistura on Tuesday.
Bashar Al-Ja’afari said after two and a half hours of talks that the envoy had yet to provide an agenda or list of opposition participants. “The formalities are not yet ready,” he told reporters at the UN office in Geneva.
He also said that if the opposition “really cared” about the lives of Syrians it should condemn the killing of more than 60 people on Sunday by Daesh in a neighborhood.
A UN source said de Mistura had promised to present an opposition delegation list by Wednesday.
The refugee crisis and spread of Daesh has injected a new urgency to resolve the five-year-old Syria war. But the chances of success, always very slim, appear to be receding ever more as the government, supported by Russian airstrikes, advances against rebels, some of them US-backed, in several parts of western Syria where the country’s main cities are located
UN envoy Staffan De Mistura announced the formal start on Monday of the first attempt in two years to negotiate an end to a war that has killed 250,000 people, caused a refugee crisis in the region and Europe and empowered Daesh.
But both opposition and government representatives have since said the talks have not in fact begun and fighting on the ground raged on without constraint.
A rebel commander told Reuters he was deploying reinforcements including US-made anti-tank missiles to the Aleppo frontline for what he described as a “decisive battle.”
The main Syrian opposition council said after meeting De Mistura on Monday it had not and would not negotiate unless the government stopped bombarding civilian areas, lifted blockades and released detainees. The head of the Syrian government delegation also denied talks had started after discussions with De Mistura on Tuesday.
Bashar Al-Ja’afari said after two and a half hours of talks that the envoy had yet to provide an agenda or list of opposition participants. “The formalities are not yet ready,” he told reporters at the UN office in Geneva.
He also said that if the opposition “really cared” about the lives of Syrians it should condemn the killing of more than 60 people on Sunday by Daesh in a neighborhood.
A UN source said de Mistura had promised to present an opposition delegation list by Wednesday.
The refugee crisis and spread of Daesh has injected a new urgency to resolve the five-year-old Syria war. But the chances of success, always very slim, appear to be receding ever more as the government, supported by Russian airstrikes, advances against rebels, some of them US-backed, in several parts of western Syria where the country’s main cities are located
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