NAN-F-17
Talks
Geneva, March 23, 2017 (dpa/NAN)Syrian opposition on Thursday demanded direct talks with government in the new round of UN-brokered peace negotiations.
They said, previous rounds have not yielded concrete outcomes, and UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura has shuttled between the two delegations, rather than sitting them down at one table.
“We still insist on direct negotiations.
“We don’t have time to waste here,” Salem Muslat, spokesman for the Syrian opposition’s High Negotiations Committee said.
Muslat told reporters that the government should enter this round of talks with a serious plan to engage with the opposition.
The new Geneva round is overshadowed by the heavy fighting in eastern Damascus, where rebels launched an attack against government forces on the weekend.
At the previous round of talks that ended in early March, both sides did not negotiate the substance of what peace could look like.
However, they agreed on an agenda including an inclusive new government, a new constitution, elections, and anti-terrorism efforts.
NAN recalls that on Feb. 20, the Syrian opposition sent a team to UN-sponsored peace talks with the government in Geneva.
The 21-member delegation was led by Nasr al-Hariri of the Western-backed Syrian National Coalition, the Higher Negotiations Committee (HNC), an opposition grouping, said late Saturday after a two-day meeting in Saudi Arabia.
Half of the delegation represent the opposition forces fighting on the ground, the HNC said in a statement.
The team will be backed by a 21-member panel of political, legal and military specialists, it added.
The opposition bloc also called for international efforts to shore up a fragile ceasefire that went into effect in Syria in late December.
Syria’s conflict, which started with peaceful anti-government demonstrations in March 2011, spiralled into a full-blown war that has claimed more than 300,000 lives and driven about half the pre-war population of 22 million from their homes. (dpa/NAN)
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Edited by Celine-Damilola Oyewole/Sadiya Hamza