New round of Intra-Syrian peace talks kick off in Geneva

GENEVA, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations special envoy for Syria, Staffan De Mistura, met and held bilateral talks with the Syrian opposition delegation Tuesday afternoon, kicking off the new round of the intra-Syrian talks under the aegis of the UN.

The Syrian government delegation failed to arrive at Geneva on the opening day of the new talks. The UN said that the government representatives will arrive and attend the talks on Wednesday.

Although the details of the first talks between the UN envoy and the Syrian opposition delegation, known as the Syrian Negotiation Commission (SNC), remained unknown yet, the UN had said earlier that the focus for this new round of talks would be on the issue of "elections and constitution".

After meeting with the De Mistura, SNC issued a statement calling for "direct negotiations" with the representatives of the Assad regime to the UN-led talks in Geneva.

According to De Mistura, it is still not sure that whether or not the just-started new round of the Syrian peace talks will take place in the form of a direct dialogue between both sides.

"We are always aiming for a direct dialogue. The opposition now is unified and said they are ready to have a direct discussion with the government, but I need to ask the government's position tomorrow if they are ready to do the same," the UN envoy told Xinhua after meeting with the China 's Special Envoy for Syria Xie Xiaoyan.

He added that if the time is still not right for a direct negotiation, the new round of the Intra-Syrian talks will still take place in an indirect way, or the so called "proximate talks".

While stressing that the political process should take place in Geneva without any preconditions, the UN official also said that other initiatives, like the Astana talks resulting the establishment of four de-escalation zones in Syria, are also welcome because they have their values and importance.

Breaking out in 2011 and then quickly turned into a full-fledged war, the Syrian armed conflict has entered into its seventh year, and so far UN figures showed that the Syria war has killed more than 330,000 people and displaced millions.

The last UN-led talks aimed at brokering a political solution between the Syrian government and the major opposition forces ended on July 14 without going deeper into any of the scheduled topics. Enditem