Geneva //The UN special envoy for Syria said yesterday that talks on ending the civil war have now officially started, following his first formal meeting with the main opposition umbrella group in Geneva.
“We will meet the government tomorrow and will invite the HNC [High Negotiations Committee] tomorrow afternoon to go deeper into the issues raised,” Staffan de Mistura said.
The announcement came after the HNC met formally with Mr de Mistura for the first time yesterday.
The preliminary meeting came as the UN reported eight more deaths from insufficient medical care in one of the many towns besieged by government or rebel forces.
The HNC is insisting that humanitarian aid reach towns under government siege before it will agree to enter indirect talks with president Bashar Al Assad’s government, which are scheduled to last six months.
The talks are part of the biggest push to date to chart a way out of the tangled Syrian war that has killed more than 260,000 people and forced millions from their homes since March 2011.
The urgency to find a solution was brought home on Sunday when attacks claimed by ISIL killed 71 people near a revered Shiite shrine outside Damascus.
The new deaths, reported yesterday by the UN humanitarian organisation (OCHA), occurred in Moadimayet Al Sham south-west of Damascus, the site of a 2013 chemical weapons attack.
OCHA said there had been a “sharp deterioration of the humanitarian situation” in the town, which has been besieged by Mr Al Assad’s forces since 2012 although conditions improved after a 2014 truce deal.
Mr de Mistura’s brief in Geneva is to coax the warring sides into six months of “proximity talks” as part of an ambitious road map agreed on by the many outside powers embroiled in the war.
The plan, hammered out in Vienna in November, envisions elections within 18 months, but the key question about the future of Mr Al Assad – backed by Iran and Russia – was left until later to resolve.
British foreign secretary Philip Hammond said yesterday the talks “must deliver a political transition away from Assad” but experts said the West was backing off from demands that he leave before any such transition started.
In addition to humanitarian aid, the HNC, which only reluctantly arrived in Geneva late on Saturday, was also demanding the Assad regime free prisoners and that its Russian backers stop bombarding civilians.
Outside powers were also in Geneva keeping a close eye on proceedings, with the Syrian government’s chief negotiator Bashar Al Jaafari meeting the Russian ambassador, and western envoys touching base with the opposition on Sunday.
Another thorny issue is which rebel groups will be involved in the talks, although all sides agree on the exclusion of ISIL and Jabhat Al Nusra, Al Qaeda’s Syrian branch.
The Jaish Al Islam rebel group is part of the HNC’s delegation. The HNC’s chief negotiator and Jaish Al Islam member, Mohammed Alloush, considered a terrorist by Moscow, arrived yesterday.
* Agence France-Presse
