The UN’s Syria envoy wrapped up a week of fragile peace talks on Friday with plans to meet both sides, after urging the regime put forward clear plans for political transition.
The UN’s Syria envoy wrapped up a week of fragile peace talks on Friday with plans to meet both sides, after urging the regime put forward clear plans for political transition.
Staffan de Mistura, the United Nations mediator at the Geneva negotiations, has said agreeing on a unity government to lead Syria out of five years of civil war was the most daunting roadblock to peace.
He praised the main Opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC) for offering “substantive” plans for a transition on Thursday.
But the HNC has made the departure of President Bashar al-Assad an unalterable demand, while Damascus has termed any talk of the President’s removal as “a red line”.
“I hope I will get similar in-depth clarity from the government” about options for political transition, the UN envoy told reporters.
He described previous talks with the regime this week as “more on the formal side”.
“Time is going by,” he said. “What we need to do is start looking (at)... what the government sees as a possible political transition.”
Efforts to negotiate an end to the violence that has killed more than 270,000 people and displaced millions face daunting obstacles.
Meanwhile, Russian jets are flying some 25 bombing raids daily to back up a Syrian government offensive to recapture the ancient city of Palmyra from ISIS jihadists, the armed forces said on Friday.
“Government troops and patriotic forces with the support of the Russian Air Force are carrying out a large-scale operation to liberate Palmyra,” senior commander Sergei Rudskoi told journalists, adding that “on average Russian planes are flying 20 to 25 combat sorties each day”.
ISIS had claimed the killing of five Russian troops in fighting near Palmyra.
“The soldiers of the caliphate, by the grace of God, have killed five Russian soldiers and six members” of the Syrian Army, ISIS said in a statement.
The group also claimed the killing of several members of the Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah in the clashes near Palmyra.
