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Spotlight: Syria peace talks in Geneva struggle to continue into second day

Xinhua, February 3, 2016 Adjust font size:

The UN-mediated Syria peace talks struggled to continue into its second day as United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Staffan De Mistura met again with the Syrian government delegation on Tuesday.

The UN envoy is also scheduled to meet with the opposition delegation for a second time on Tuesday.

Syrian ambassador to the UN and head of the government delegation Bashar Jaafari said the fragile talks do not seem to be taking place in the right circumstances.

"Having discussed with us this morning, de Mistura subsequently realized that the right circumstances have not yet been met," said Jaafari.

According to him, talks attempting to broker peace for the war-torn country were still in their preliminary stages.

"Circumstances on the formality side of things have yet to finish," Jaafari explained, adding "we are indeed in the preparatory phase before proximity talks can officially begin."

"You know that to be able to officially declare the beginning of discussions, both sides and delegations must do so on site, something which has not been achieved yet," he highlighted.

The peace talks aim to take place over six months in view of finding a lasting peace for Syria, a country which has been at war for almost five years.

Scheduled meetings come against a backdrop of stalemates as two past initiatives failed to make headway in solving the political crisis pitching Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against anti-government forces, with terrorist factions such as the Islamic State (IS) and Al-Nusra also in the mix.

The latest round of talks not only aim to discuss governance, constitutional change and the holding of elections but also hopes to address the implementation of a lasting ceasefire to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid and stopping the threat of IS.

Estimates reveal that 250,000 Syrian people have died in the five years since the war started and that more than 4 million people have fled the Middle Eastern country as a result of protracted violence.

An additional 6.5 million have been internally displaced by conflict and 13.5 million people inside the country are in urgent need of humanitarian aid. Enditem