UN official striving to resume Syrian talks by Feb. 25

UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura is continuing efforts to convince warring factions in Syria to come back to the negotiation table by Feb. 25, if not earlier, the director of the UN information service Ahmad Fawzi told press on Tuesday.

As the situation in the war-torn country continues to deteriorate, Fawzi indicated that a number of commitments had to be met to be able to move forward.

He also explained that de Mistura was attempting to convince those with influence over parties to the conflict pitching Syrian president Bashar al-Assad against anti-government forces to persuade them to resume discussions put on hold earlier this month.

In light of this, de Mistura held a meeting today in Damascus with the Syrian foreign minister Walid al-Muallem as well as with his team and with the UN resident-humanitarian coordinator Yacoub El Hillo.

"I had a useful meeting with Minister al-Muallem. We discussed the priority issue for us at this moment, the issue about humanitarian access to besieged areas, by anyone who is besieging it," the Special Envoy said in a stakeout in Syria.

"It is clear it is the duty of the government of Syria to want to reach every Syrian person wherever they are and allow the UN to bring humanitarian aid, particularly now after such a long time," de Mistura explained.

"Tomorrow we test this, and we will be able to talk more about it," he added.

Fawzi confirmed that the second of two humanitarian task force meetings between International Syria Support Group (ISSG) representatives would take place on Feb. 18 in Geneva.

These meetings aim to discuss the challenges and procedures of delivering aid in Syria, a country where some 4.5 million people live in areas that are hard to reach for the humanitarian community. Endit