UN envoy asks Security Council to put off Syria talks in Geneva

UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said here Tuesday that he had asked the UN Security Council to postpone the intra-Syrian peace talks in Geneva until Feb. 20.

"I did ask the Security Council and based also on the discussions I had with the SG (UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres) to postpone the talks until the 20th" of February, de Mistura made the remarks while talking to reporters after he briefed the 15-nation UN body at a closed meeting on the current situation in Syria.

The Syria talks in Geneva had been scheduled for Feb. 8, de Mistura told the closed council meeting that he sought the postponement in order to give the Syrian opposition more time to prepare for the talks and ensure that the peace talks are as inclusive as possible, diplomats said here.

Last week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the Syrian peace talks would be delayed, but he did not elaborate. However, the United Nations did not confirm it at that time.

Rounds of Syrian peace talks have taken place in Geneva under the auspices of the United Nations, but little progress has been made mainly due to continuous fighting in the Middle Eastern country.

Also last week, Russia, Iran and Turkey led talks in Astana, the Kazakh capital, in a bid to bring an early ceasefire into Syria, where a political crisis broke out in March 2011 and it was followed by a subsequent civil war.

More than 310,000 people have been reportedly killed in the Syria war.

source: Xinhua