UN envoy outlines Syria peace talks plan as violence continues

UN mediator Staffan de Mistura told the delegations that several more rounds of talks would be needed to reach an accord, and set out governance, constitution and elections as three key discussion areas.

A man walks amid the rubble of destroyed buildings following a Syrian government air strike on the rebel-held town of Douma, on the eastern outskirts of the capital Damascus, on February 26, 2017. Abd Doumany / AFPShow less

GENEVA // Syrian activists called on Sunday for the Assad government to engage in serious talks on political transition and for the United Nations to strengthen the fragile ceasefire as violence engulfed parts of the country.

The call came as UN mediator Staffan de Mistura told the delegations several more rounds of talks would be needed to reach an accord, and set out governance, constitution and elections as three key discussion areas.

In a paper given to both sides, he said that by the end of the current session “we would have a deeper shared understanding of how we can proceed in future rounds” in discussing each area.

Syrian regime and opposition negotiators gathered in Geneva last week for a fourth round of UN-sponsored talks, but they have been overshadowed by deadly attacks on the ground.

The talks could last until March 5, a couple of days longer than originally scheduled, according to an opposition source. The first full day of talks was Friday.

On Saturday, suicide attacks in Syria’s third city Homs killed dozens of people including a top Syrian intelligence officer. Mr de Mistura said the attacks were a deliberate attempt to wreck the peace talks, while the warring sides traded blame and appeared no closer to actual negotiations.

There have been no face-to-face talks between the two sides so far, with the UN envoy meeting each delegation separately as in the three previous rounds, the last of which was in April 2016.

“Our hopes are not high given the incidents on the ground and the continuous violations by the regime forces and its backers of the ceasefire,” said Mutasem Alysoufi of The Day after Syria campaign that supports democratic transition is calling for the UN to strengthen a ceasefire brokered by Russia and Turkey.

Warplanes bombed rebel-held areas around several Syrian cities on Sunday including in Al Waer district of Homs, and in towns around Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.

One person was killed in the Damascus suburb of Douma and three in Al Waer, the Observatory said, while shells and rockets were launched at rebel areas in Deraa and Idlib provinces. Rebels fired several shells at a suburb of government-held Aleppo.

Mr Alysoufi said he did not believe the government delegation, led by Syria’s UN ambassador Bashar Jaafari, wanted to engage in serious political talks. “They are gaining more time and continuing their military strategy on the ground,” he said.

Mr de Mistura met on Sunday with two opposition groups that curry favour with Russia, president Bashar Al Assad’s main backer.

The UN envoy has indicated to the High Negotiations Committee (HNC), which is leading the main opposition delegation, that he would like to unify the disparate opposition groups to facilitate face-to-face talks with the government to end the nearly six-year-old conflict.

Jihadi Makdissi, a former Syrian foreign ministry spokesman who heads opponents from the “Cairo” platform, gave no sign that a unified delegation could emerge, but said he was coordinating with the HNC.

“We are not a fragmented opposition, we are merely diverse,” he said.

According to Mr de Mistura’s paper, the agenda for the talks is based on resolution 2254 with focus on the three political issues and would be discussed in working groups.

Nothing would be agreed until everything is agreed, the paper said.

It also reiterated that issues related to the ceasefire and fighting terrorism should be the focus of separate talks in the Kazakh capital of Astana which are sponsored by Russia and Turkey with the support of another Assad backer, Iran.

Meanwhile, the Syrian army and its allies advanced against ISIL in north-west Syria and near the central town of Palmyra.

The extremist group was last week pushed out of the town of Al Bab by Turkey-backed Syrian rebels and on Sunday the Syrian army took the town of Tadef just south of Al Bab, state television reported.

The eastward advance in an area south of Al Bab has extended Syrian army control across 14 villages. By taking ISIL territory south of Al Bab, the army is preventing any possible move by Turkey and the rebel groups it supports to expand southward. Earlier this month, a senior Russian official said Tadef marked an agreed dividing line between the Syrian army and the Turkey-backed forces.

Syrian troops also moved to within 10km west of Palmyra, prized for its ancient Roman archaeological ruins. ISIL captured Palmyra a second time in December after being forced out by government forces in March.

* Reuters and Agence France-Presse