Syria peace talks resume in Geneva after ceasefire

SYRIA’S government and opposition were set to meet yesterday for a seventh round of UN-sponsored peace talks with little expectation of a breakthrough to end the six-year conflict.

The talks in Geneva open after a ceasefire took effect in three provinces in southern Syria on Sunday, with a monitor reporting the region was mostly quiet despite scattered violations.

The ceasefire was brokered by the US, Russia and Jordan, the latest agreement reached outside the Geneva framework.

The peace process in the Swiss city has been increasingly overshadowed by a separate track organised by regime allies Russia and Iran, and rebel backer Turkey. In principle, the new round of Geneva negotiations will focus on four so-called “baskets”: a new constitution, governance, elections and combating “terrorism”.

As he arrived for the talks on Monday, UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura told reporters: “We will work very hard.”

The last talks ended in May with little progress towards ending a war that has killed more than 320,000 people since it began in March 2011. De Mistura said after that round that “important gaps remain . . . on major issues,” and that time constraints had stymied progress.

Syria’s opposition insists President Bashar al-Assad must step down as part of any political solution, but the government says Assad’s fate is not up for discus- sion. Still, both sides are expected to participate once again, with Yehya al-Aridi, a spokesman for the opposition High Negotiations Committee, saying he had “modest expectations”.

De Mistura’s deputy Ramzi Ezzedine Ramzi has said the ceasefire deal “helps create a suitable atmosphere for the talks”.

“We hope that an agreement will be reached for the other areas that have been discussed as soon as possible and this will lead to significant support for the political process,” he said.