The United Nations will delay the next round of Syria peace talks by two days to allow the cessation of hostilities in force since Saturday to take hold, UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said.
The United Nations will delay the next round of Syria peace talks by two days to allow the cessation of hostilities in force since Saturday to take hold, UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said.
International observers have acknowledged violations of the agreement intended to halt nearly five years of fighting while reporting that the level of violence has decreased considerably.
“We are delaying it to the afternoon of (March) 9th for logistical and technical reasons and also for the ceasefire to better settle down,” Mr de Mistura said on Tuesday. The talks had been penciled in for March 7.
Syrian Opposition official George Sabra said on Wednesday dates for a resumption of the talks remained hypothetical as long as the current cessation of hostilities does not meet its humanitarian demands.
On truce, the US state department said there has been no significant violation of the fragile ceasefire in Syria in the past 24 hours, but a spokesman noted “nobody's doing any victory dances” yet.
“Over the last 24 hours, we have not been apprised of any claims of any additional violations of any significance,” spokesman John Kirby said.
The fragile ceasefire saw another violation when Syrian government forces launched an attack on Wednesday to capture a rebel-held hill in north-western Syria, a rebel official and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported, an expansion of operations that have continued in that area despite a deal to cease fighting.
Elsewhere in Iraq, US Special Operations Forces captured a significant Islamic State (ISIS) operative in Iraq, the New York Times reported on Tuesday, the first suspected raid by a new force sent in recent weeks to target the jihadist group's fighters and leaders.
The newspaper said the unidentified detainee was being interrogated by US officials in a temporary facility in the Kurdish city of Erbil, but the defence officials it cited provided few other details. A spokesman declined to comment on details of the force’s missions but said any detention would be “short term and coordinated with Iraqi authorities”. Iraqi and Kurdish military spokesmen declined comment.
