Efforts still being made to get new Syria peace talks started next week: UN official

The UN Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, is working every efforts to get the scheduled peace talks on Syria started on Jan. 25, and there was likely to be clarity on that front by the end of the week, a senior UN official said on Tuesday.

Ahmad Fawzi, head of the UN information office at Geneva, told reporters Tuesday that the UN Special Envoy is "intensively occupied with preparations for the Intra Syrian Talks" in order for them to start next week.

He said that the Special Envoy has recently briefed the UN Security Council by video link from Geneva, and was in touch with both Security Council members and the UN Secretary-General.

The Special Envoy was also in contact with members of the International Syrian Support Group in an effort to find agreement on the list of participants for the meeting.

"The Special Envoy is expecting the countries spearheading the International Syrian Support Group to come to an understanding on who among the opposition should be invited," he said.

According to him, the UN Secretary-General himself has urged countries that have an influence to redouble their efforts to reach that agreement, so the Special Envoy could send out invitations.

"All Services at the United Nations Office at Geneva have been preparing for many weeks and are standing by to do everything required to get the talks on the road," he noted. Endit