Lack of optimism persists as the Geneva talks enter the second day

The new round of Syria talks in Geneva enters its second day, while there is still a lack of optimism among the observers that the talks could result in a real solution ending the six-year crisis in the country.

کد خبر: ۶۷۰۸۵۱

تاریخ: ۰۶ اسفند ۱۳۹۵ - ۱۷:۱۵

Tabnak - The new round of Syria talks in Geneva enters its second day, while there is still a lack of optimism among the observers that the talks could result in a real solution ending the six-year crisis in the country. However, for the first time during the last three years, the opposition has declared its readiness to enter direct negotiations with the government; a move that could at least pave the way to keep the negotiations going.

The second day of Geneva talks started with separate meetings between the UN special envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura and both the opposition and government delegations. According to Al-Mayadeen, the aim of these meetings is to provide the necessary conditions to start discussing the main points, including the new Syrian constitution and holding a presidential election.

Noting the difficult nature of the talks in Geneva, de Mistura stressed that if the negotiations fail, all sides would be responsible for more destruction and bloodshed in Syria. Last night he had also said that if the talks end in a failure, the fate of the embattled city Idlib would be like Aleppo – meaning that the rebels and opposition forces would have no chance to resist an attack by the Syrian army.

De Mistura’s second working day in Geneva was started with a meeting with the delegation of the Syrian government, headed by Bashar al-Ja’afari. Then he had a separate meeting with the opposition.

In its report from Geneva, Al-Mayadeen notes that after the opening session yesterday, Nasr Hariri, head of the High Negotiations Committee (HNC) – a coalition representing the opposition in Geneva – asked de Mistura to start negotiations on forming a transitional government, but de Mistura is against any negotiations outside the framework of the UN Security Council resolution number 2254. The resolution provides a step-by-step road map on how to carry on the political process.

Although after the first day of the talks some reports indicated that there’s a possibility for a face-to-face meeting between the government representatives and the opposition, Rusiya Al-Yaum, the Arabic section of Russia Today news channel reported today that such a meeting is very unlikely. According to the report, today’s meetings are aimed primarily at developing a working agenda for intra-Syrian talks.

Another point to mention about the new round of Syrian talks is the differences and disputes among the opposition itself on which groups have the right to be in Geneva delegation. The High Negotiations Committee (HNC) supported by Saudi Arabia, first refused to accept members of the so-called Cairo and Moscow delegations. The HNC had conditioned their participation to their agreement with "Riyadh Declaration”. However, according to Al-Arabiya, after a meeting with de Mistura, the HNC accepted that each of the two other delegations could send two representatives to Geneva.

The new round of Syria talks formally started yesterday with the participation of the Syrian government and the opposition and the representatives of the UN, Russia, Iran and Turkey.