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Invitations sent out to participants to intra-Syrian talks: UN

Xinhua, January 27, 2016 Adjust font size:

The UN special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, on Tuesday sent out invitations to participants to the intra-Syrian talks scheduled to start in Geneva Friday, according to a UN spokesman.

The intra-Syrian talks are intended to bring an early end to the longstanding conflict in the Middle East country.

De Mistura "has addressed invitations to the Syrian participants today ... in accordance with the parameters outlined in Security Council resolution 2254," which was unanimously adopted by the UN Security Council on Dec. 18 to endorse the political solution to the Syrian conflict that broke out in March 2011, said the spokesman.

"The intra-Syrian talks will start as of 29 January 2016 in Geneva," the spokesman said.

The 15-nation Security Council adopted the resolution to back a road map for a peace process in Syria, hoping to set out an early-January timetable for United Nations-facilitated talks between the government and opposition members, as well as the outlines of a nationwide ceasefire to begin as soon as the parties concerned had taken initial steps towards a political transition.

The intra-Syrian talks were originally scheduled to begin in Geneva, Switzerland, Monday under the United Nations sponsorship, with the top priorities being a broad ceasefire, humanitarian aid, and halting the threat posed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

De Mistura said in Geneva Monday that he is under no illusions about the difficulties in ending a war that has killed more than 250,000 people, sent over 4 million more people fleeing the country, displaced 6.5 million internally, and put 13.5 million people inside the country in urgent need of humanitarian aid.

The meetings will start with proximity talks and are expected to last for six months, with government and opposition delegations sitting in separate rooms and UN officials shuttling between them. Any ceasefire would not cover ISIL of the Al-Nusra Front.

The talks stem from an agreement reached in Vienna, Austria, in November by the International Syria Support Group (ISSG), comprising the Arab League, the European Union, the United Nations, and 17 countries including the United States, Russia and China, as part of an effort to end the five-year-long war with an agreement on new governance, a new constitution and new elections.

The first phase could last two to three weeks before preparations are made for further phases and there will be no opening ceremony, de Mistura said, stressing that there will be a substantial presence of civil society and women, who represent 51 percent of the total population. Endit