Off the wire
• UN Security Council calls for protection of civilians amid violence in South Sudan  • News Analysis: UK budget plans will mean an extra year of austerity  • Libya's UN-backed gov't to move to Tripoli: PM  • Urgent: DPRK fires ballistic missle into sea: Yonhap  • (Recast)Urgent: DPRK fires ballistic missile into sea: Yonhap  • Burundi dismantles armed group plotting to ambush officials, diplomats  • Migrants in Europe at higher risk of tuberculosis: WHO  • African economies should be transformed through industrialization: UN official  • Roundup: U.S. stocks extend gains after Fed statement  • 4 migrants dead, 187 rescued off Libyan coast  
You are here: 　 Home

Syrian opposition reiterates need to find solution within six months

Xinhua, March 18, 2016 Adjust font size:

Syrian opposition delegate Bassma Kodmani stressed on Thursday the High Negotiations Committee's (HNC) wish to move quickly with ongoing talks so as to find a solution to the Syrian crisis within a six month timeframe.

"We are keen to move quickly and we are very keen to avoid a process that does not deliver," she told reporters following the HNC's second meeting with Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura in the latest round of UN-mediated talks seeking to broker a political end to the conflict.

"De Mistura reasserted that it was six month timeframe, hopefully less but certainly not more. That to us is certainly a reassurance," she added.

The delegate, part of the Saudi-backed HNC which is the umbrella group for Syrian opposition factions locked in 5 year-struggle with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, also raised the issue of detainees with the special envoy.

"We are happy that de Mistura is making it a priority, he has been fairly specific about pressing the taskforce and particularly pressing the two co-chairs of the taskforce on humanitarian issues to come up with a mechanism," she explained.

"That was one big gap since the formation of the taskforces, there was no mechanism. We now hope that the mechanism can be put in place and the co-chairs, the U.S. and Russia, are directly responsible for making it move forward," she added.

Despite a cessation of hostilities that is largely holding and much improved humanitarian access, concerns with regards to the situation in Darayya were voiced for a second time this week.

A number of locations in war-torn Syria have yet to receive life-saving assistance, including one third of the 18 besieged areas the UN has been working with.

Among these locations are the symbolically important areas of Darayya and Douma.

"We are happy to see that from this working session we had a commitment that de Mistura was to going to press the other side and that this process could move quickly. We do hope that we will not lose time because every day lost is lost for Syria and the Syrians," concluded Kodmani, who also staunchly rejected the creation of a federal Syria. Endit