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Syrian gov't delegation to respond to UN paper in next round of Syrian talks

Xinhua, March 24, 2016 Adjust font size:

Syrian government delegation head Bashar Jaafari told press on Wednesday that the government's stance towards a paper submitted by UN mediator Staffan de Mistura will be made clear in the next round of Syrian peace talks in April.

"Today we received a paper from Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura, this paper will be carefully studied after we go back to our capital Damascus and we will respond to it at the beginning of the next round," explained Jaafari following a meeting with the special envoy earlier Wednesday.

"As you know and I told you the day before yesterday, our delegation was the first and in fact the only delegation that submitted a working paper in the context of the proximity talks," he added.

Though the latest round of talks aiming to broker a political end to the five-year-long conflict which has killed over 250,000 people has been held in a relatively positive atmosphere, much work remains to bridge persisting gaps between sides.

The fate of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the issue of political transition are still major sticking points between the Saudi-backed High Negotiations Committee, the umbrella group for Syrian opposition factions, and the Syrian government delegation.

The first phase of proximity negotiations are scheduled to end on March 24, before resuming at the beginning of April. Endit