‘Professional and serious’ UN talks to end Syrian war

GENEVA: Negotiations in Geneva aimed at ending Syria’s devastating civil war have started in a “professional and serious” atmosphere and will be extended another two weeks, the UN mediator said on Thursday.

The meetings, which began on Wednesday, were initially expected to last only two to three days, United Nations special envoy Staffan de Mistura said.

“The atmosphere... compared with the past was professional and serious on both sides,” he said, adding that the talks were now expected to last until Dec 15.

De Mistura said they would take a break over the weekend and would return here to continue the negotiations next Tuesday.

In seven past rounds on his watch, the envoy has not managed to get representatives of Syria’s warring sides to sit at the same table, instead of shuttling back and forth between delegations.

But on Thursday, he said talks were heading in the right direction, with the two sides arriving at the UN here around the same time, and holding parallel meetings in rooms “just five metres apart”.

These were “very close, proximity, parallel meetings,” de Mistura said.

Syria’s government had initially refused to confirm it would attend the UN-brokered peace talks after the rebels signalled they would maintain a hard line on their call for President Bashar al-Assad to be removed from office.

But government negotiators finally showed up after reportedly securing key concessions, including keeping the Assad issue off the table.

The UN mediator told reporters the negotiations so far had not touched on “the issue of the presidency”, and stressed there should be “no preconditions”. AFP