The three-day-old Syrian peace talks have hit their first logjams, as disputes erupted over the composition of delegations to the talks and a Kurdish call to form a federal Syria with a semi-autonomous Kurdish region in the north of the country. The UN officials expected teething troubles, and are largely reliant onRussia and the US to pressure negotiators to remain constructive.
The idea of a federal Syria was rejected outright on Tuesday by Bashar al-Jaafari, the leader of the Syrian government delegation, who also said he would not talk directly to the main Syrian opposition delegation because it included people he considered terrorist murderers.
He said a future federal Syria, proposed on Wednesday by Kurdish groups leading the fight against Islamic State, was doomed to fail. Kurds had been part of Syria for centuries, he said.
Speaking after his second round of talks with UN officials, Jaafari also rejected suggestions he was under any pressure from Russia to compromise in the talks as a result of the surprise partial withdrawal of troops announced by Vladimir Putinat the start of the Geneva talks on Monday.
With the phased withdrawal continuing on Wednesday, he said all such decisions about Russian troop movements, including partial withdrawals, were agreed jointly with the Russian government.
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