UN envoy says intra-Syrian talks cannot fail

Staffan de Mistura, the UN special envoy for Syria, on Thursday said that the upcoming intra-Syrian talks cannot fail and five years of this conflict in Syria have been too much.

De Mistura made the statement in his video message to the Syrian people in advance of the launch of the intra-Syrian talks, saying that he noted that the Syrian people have seen enough conferences, and two of them have already taken place, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said here Thursday at a daily news briefing.

"This one cannot fail," de Mistura said, referring to the upcoming event slated for Friday in Geneva.

"His message was simply: Khalas (Arabic word); enough. Enough of buildings being destroyed, enough of bombing cities, enough of people risking their lives and facing humiliation as refugees, enough of danger," Dujarric said.

"The special envoy told the Syrian people that everyone who is coming to the conference needs to hear their voice, telling them that this conference must be an opportunity not to be missed," Dujarric said.

The intra-Syrian talks were originally scheduled to begin in Geneva on Monday under United Nations sponsorship, with the first priority 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 on Monday that he is under no illusions about the difficulties in ending a war that has killed more than 250,000 Syrian people, sent over 4 million fleeing the Middle East 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 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. Enditem