No date set for next Syria talks
moscow/geneva — The United Nations said on Wednesday no date had been set for the next round of Syria peace talks, contradicting a report quoting Russia’s deputy foreign minister as saying talks would resume in Geneva on May 10.
UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura is struggling to keep the peace process alive after the main opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC) left formal talks last week.
Asked on Wednesday whether a new date had been set, the HNC said it was up to the United Nations to say when peace talks would resume but that it would not take part until its demands were met.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov’s comments were reported but RIA news agency earlier on Wednesday, but a spokeswoman for de Mistura said in an email that May 10 was speculation.
De Mistura was due to address the UN Security Council by videolink on Wednesday night from Geneva at the end of a two-week round which began on April 13.
He is expected to speak beforehand with both US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the co-sponsors of the fragile twomonth ceasefire who are steering the talks. De Mistura is talking about May 14-15 for starting the next round, a Western diplomat said. “But it is very, very theoretical,” the diplomat told “It is not at all a given that the two parties will return to Geneva.”
“De Mistura feels that ending the round without giving a date for the next one would not be a good sign. But it’s theoretical.”