UN insists Syria peace talks to go ahead

Malala urges Syria conference to give millions for education

The UN insisted that high-stakes peace talks aimed at ending the brutal, five-year-old Syrian conflict would still begin in Switzerland later Friday despite uncertainty over whether key groups would even attend.

UN envoy Staffan de Mistura “will start by meeting the government’s delegation today (Friday)” in Geneva, followed by talks with “other participants”, the United Nations said in a statement. The Syrian government delegation, headed by Syria’s envoy to the UN Bashar al-Jaafari, arrived in Geneva early afternoon, a source said.

Opposition figures not part of the umbrella group High Negotiations Committee (HNC), said they would be present. However, despite Western pressure on the HNC, it has yet to decide whether to come and was engaged in a fourth day of discussions in Saudi Arabia on Friday.

Mr De Mistura issued on Thursday an emotional video message to the Syrian people both inside and outside the country saying that after previous failures, this new effort “cannot fail”. “Five years of this conflict have been too much. The horror is in front of everyone’s eyes,” Mr de Mistura said. “You must know also that we count on you to raise your voice to say ‘khalas’ (“stop” in Arabic).”

Meanwhile, a petition launched by Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai urging a Syria donors’ conference to give millions of dollars for educational causes had reached over 70,000 signatures.

Addressed to US President Barack Obama, the petition, published on the change.Org website, calls for world leaders to commit $1.4 billion at the London conference “to make sure all Syrian children affected by the conflict get an education”.