GENEVA:(WN)- Syrian peace talks under the
auspices of the United Nations resumed in Geneva on Thursday, 10 months after
falling apart over escalating bloodshed in the war-torn country.
The talks come as Turkish troops and Syrian
opposition forces seized the center of the Islamic State-held town of al-Bab,
breaking a weeks-long deadlock between the two sides at the periphery of the
town, according to Turkey's state news agency. Pro-government forces are just 3
kilometers (2 miles) south of al-Bab, though clashes with the opposition forces
in the area have so far been limited.
The Geneva talks are the latest bid to end
Syria's catastrophic six-year war that has killed hundreds of thousands of
people and displaced some 11 million more.
U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura convened
separate meetings with representatives of the government and opposition
delegations Thursday morning. He said he hoped to convene a "sort of
welcoming ceremony" and bilateral talks later in the day. De Mistura also
met with a group of Syrian women who came to push for the discussion of the
fate of detainees and abducted people in the Syrian conflict. They held a
symbolic moment of silence together.
"There are thousands and thousands of
mothers, wives, daughters who are hoping that at least this aspect will be one
of the benefits of any negotiation," De Mistura told reporters.
A day earlier, he played down expectations
for the talks, saying he did not expect any breakthroughs, but all parties are
aware that the dynamics in Syria have changed since talks were last in Geneva
in April.
Abdulahad Astepho, a member of the opposition
delegation, said rebels would feature in a "greater role" in this
round of talks, reflecting the changing dynamics inside Syria, where factions
are drifting away from the exiled opposition leadership and closer to
ultraconservative groups like Ahrar al-Sham and the al-Qaida-linked Fatah
al-Sham Front.
The Geneva talks come after cease-fire
discussions in Astana, Kazakhstan, that were coordinated largely by Turkey, the
opposition's closest state backer in the civil war, and Russia, whose air power
has supported Assad's forces. In those meetings, the rebels sat face-to-face
with a government delegation a first and the exiled political opposition
was present only on the sidelines. They have not yet sat face-to-face under
U.N. auspices. This is the fourth round of U.N.-mediated talks since early last
year.
Despite the cease-fire, violations
nevertheless occur on a daily basis, in part because of the ambiguous wording
of the original agreement, signed in Ankara in late December.
On Thursday, activists reported heavy clashes
across the southern city of Daraa between pro-government forces and opposition
factions headed by a Qaida-linked group. Opposition media agencies also
reported government air raids around the Hama countryside, in central Syria.
The government has insisted that the
cease-fire does not protect al Qaida linked groups, while rebels say the
agreement they signed in Ankara says it does. Rebels have found themselves
dependent on al Qaida's battlehardened factions since 2015 to rebuff government
advances around the country.
In al-Bab, 30 kilometers (18 miles) south of
the Turkish border, Turkish troops and Syrian opposition forces were sweeping
the town center for mines left over by retreating Islamic State militants,
according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group.
The Syrian government has repeatedly decried
Turkey's troop presence as a violation of Syrian sovereignty and an act of
aggression, but the two sides have not faced off. Government forces are instead
focusing their efforts on forcing out the opposition from positions around the
capital, Damascus and fighting rebels in Daraa, and the Islamic State group in
the north and east of the country.
Assad's forces were able to expel rebel
fighters in December from a longtime stronghold on the eastern side of the city
of Aleppo, which was Syria's economic capital and largest city before the war
began.
Speaking ahead of the Geneva meeting, an
opposition delegation member told AP that they hoped to achieve "at least
something at the human dimension: lifting the siege in certain areas, getting
aid to those who are besieged."
He also hoped there would be serious work on
the issue of political transition, a sticking point of past talks. "The
world has to end this saga. The world has to end these brutalities," said
Yahya al-Aridi.
0 Comments