Moscow wants to include PYD Kurds in next Geneva talks
- by Andrea Singleton
- in Global
- — Mar 6, 2017
The general principles on the future of Syria were derived from points set out by United Nations mediator Staffan de Mistura a year ago, Hariri told reporters after the final meeting of the round of United Nations -led talks in Geneva, the first in 10 months.
"The train is ready, it is in the station, it is warming up the engine".
Recent peace talks in February between the Syrian government and the opposition ended on Friday in Geneva.
While the PYD was not invited due to opposition from Turkey, the Kurdish National Council (KNC) -that is part of the Turkey-supported Syrian National Coalition (SNC)- joined the peace talks.
The UN special envoy reiterated that the negotiations should facilitate humanitarian access to the Arab country, adding that he would travel to NY in the next few days to brief UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on the outcome of the talks, dubbed Geneva 4.
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, almost half a millions lives.
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The terrorism point, said Jaafari, was included in the agenda "upon our request with the exception of the Riyadh group". Syria's ambassador to the U.N. Bashar al-Ja'afari also said the government wanted a unified opposition delegation as its negotiating partner.
The Syrian government's delegation left without comment.
Despite periodic displays of division, Western diplomats and analysts who had come to shepherd the opposition through the tricky process credited the motley crew of political dissidents and military commanders for holding their ground. "And the accelerator is in the hands of those who were attending this round", de Mistura told reporters Friday night.
He and other commanders nonetheless expressed hope for a political solution, but had no illusions that any agreement would require the support of Russian Federation to become a reality in the absence of a clear position on Syria by the new United States administration.
Since the last round was held previous year, rebel factions have lost eastern Aleppo, one of their main strongholds in the country, and are increasingly on the back foot as Damascus seeks to consolidate its military gains on the ground.
