Syria says agenda agreed for next Geneva round

Syria’s chief negotiator said on Saturday that the “only thing” achieved at 10-day talks in Geneva was an agreed agenda and that the government wanted a unified opposition delegation as its negotiating partner.

In his first remarks since talks ended on Friday, Bashar Al Jaafari, Syria’s ambassador to the UN in New York said that all four subjects in the agreed agenda reached through UN mediator Staffan de Mistura were equal, including fighting terrorism.

Al Jaafari said Damascus was still studying whether to return for the next round of talks in Geneva later in March.

The United Nations special envoy for Syria concluded on Friday a marathon round of talks in Geneva with an agreement from the conflicting parties to pursue further talks on a political transition to end the six-year war.

For nine days, De Mistura engaged in day-to-night proxy talks with a delegation representing the government of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad and three opposition groups that only converged for the opening ceremony

Speaking to reporters after another long day of meetings, the envoy called the round of talks “substantive” and said the parties had agreed to return later in March to discuss four points — governance, constitution, elections and counter-terrorism.

“The train is ready, it’s in the station, it’s warming up its engine,” he said. “It just needs an accelerator.”

Setting the agenda proved a delicate task in this round of talks, dubbed Geneva 4, which aimed to restore hope for a negotiated solution to a conflict that has raged for six years and claimed, by most counts, nearly half a millions lives.

De Mistura said that after a 10-month pause, the talks were unavoidably dominated by procedure, but he credited all sides for also addressing issues of substance. He noted that Damascus placed emphasis on terrorism and the opposition on a political transition.

He said all parties understood they were working toward implementation of a UN Security Council framework that sets out a “clear timetable” to draft a new constitution for Syria within 12 months and for free and fair elections to be held within 18 months.

But, the envoy warned, there are “people in Syria and outside who still believe there is a military option or a military solution.”

“That is fantasy,” he said, adding that the United Nations would work in the coming weeks and months to settle the conflict.

De Mistura said the Geneva talks had the support of key regional player Turkey, which supports the opposition, as well as the allies of Damascus, Russia and Iran. The three countries are the guarantors of a cessation of hostilities agreement mediated in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan.

The talks in Astana, like those in Geneva, are expected to continue. De Mistura said the efforts on these two fronts were complementary, with ceasefires leading to productive talks and productive talks in turn helping maintain ceasefires.

“If we don’t have productive talks, (the) ceasefire won’t last,” he said. “We are really working hand in hand but there are two hands

source : gulfnews