Page 10 - Aruba Today

A10
WORLD NEWSThursday 4 February 2016
After 2 days, Syrian peace talks to take a ‘temporary pause’
BASSEM MROUE
JAMEY KEATEN
Associated Press
GENEVA (AP) — The peace
talks in the Syrian civil war
are taking a break. The
fighting is not.
U.N. Special Envoy for
Syria Staffan de Mistura
announced Wednesday
there would be a “tempo-
rary pause” in the indirect
peace talks between the
government and opposi-
tion, saying the process will
resume Feb. 25.
In a statement later in the
day, de Mistura’s office
said the talks would take a
“recess” by the end of Fri-
day and would resume “no
later than 25 February, and
possibly much earlier.”
The delay reflects the rocky
start of the talks Monday in
which neither the govern-
ment nor the opposition
even acknowledged that
the negotiations had offi-
cially begun.
“It is not the end, and it is
not the failure of the talks,” added.
de Mistura told reporters af-
ter a meeting with opposi-
tion leaders.
Both sides remain “inter-
ested in having the political
process started,” he add-
ed.
The conflict that began in
March 2011 has killed at
least 250,000 people, dis-
placed 11 million and given
an opening for the Islamic
State group to seize large
parts of the country from
forces loyal to President
Bashar Assad.
“I’m not frustrated I’m not
disappointed,” de Mistura
said of the pause. “When
you have a five year war
and had so many difficult
moments you have to be
determined, but also real-
istic.”
Staffan de Mistura, UN Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Syria, speaks to the press in
Geneva, Switzerland, Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2016.
The last round of talks broke
down in 2014.
The Saudi-backed oppo-
sition, known as the High
Negotiations Committee,
had been reluctant to
come to the talks, saying
the government should first
end the bombardment of
civilians, allow aid into be-
sieged rebel-held areas,
and release thousands of
detainees.
On Wednesday, delega-
tion head Riad Hajib said
the Assad government had
not met those demands.
“The HNC delegation will
leave tomorrow and will
not return (to Geneva) until
we see positive steps on hu-
manitarian issues,” he said.
“This regime that ruined
the Geneva negotiations in
2014 is doing it again during
this political process,” Hijab Zahra are located in the
“We came to Geneva to
prove to the world that this
regime does not believe in
a political solution.”
The head of the Syrian del-
egation, Bashar Ja’afari,
said the opposition “had
orders from its masters to
ruin the talks.”
“Yes, there is a failure. It is made significant advanc-
a failure of everybody ex-
cept the government of
the Syrian Arab Republic,”
Ja’afari said. “Those who
have the responsibility of
this failure are the Saudis,
the Turks and the Qataris.
They are the real handlers
and the masters of the Ri-
yadh group.”
On Wednesday, Syrian gov-
ernment forces, backed by
Russian airstrikes, blasted
their way into two Shiite vil-
lages in the north, breaking
a long-running rebel siege,
Syrian TV reported.
The villages of Nubul and
middle of opposition terri-
tory and have been block-
aded by rebel groups for
about three years, with the
He had scheduled the talks
to last six months.
De Mistura said he will ask
Associated Press the U.N. Security Council
and the International Syria
army occasionally drop- Support group of about 20
ping food and other aid to regional and world pow-
those inside. ers to address some of the
Reaching them marked a pending issues in the talks,
major victory for govern- including what can be
ment forces, which have done “to make a differ-
ence for the Syrian peo-
es in Aleppo province in ple.”
recent days. The Syrian He said “the U.N. cannot al-
troops severed a key sup- low simply procedural mat-
ply route linking the rebels ters to actually become
in the city of Aleppo to the more important than ac-
Turkish border. tually the result for the hu-
If the pro-government of- manitarian situation for the
fensive succeeds, it will be Syrian people, who have
one of the biggest blows been waiting for us to de-
to the insurgents since they liver not a conference but
captured large parts of something concrete for
Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, them.”
in the summer of 2012. He said he would not di-
The offensive has led the rectly address the battle-
opposition to accuse Da- field developments, but
mascus of negotiating in that “military activities and
bad faith. other reasons” had made it
The two delegations were impossible to make head-
not meeting face to face way on humanitarian issues,
but were in separate such as the lifting of sieges
rooms, with de Mistura shut- on many cities, towns and
tling between them in the villages.
so-called “proximity talks.” Western powers expressed
support for de Mistura and
sharply criticized Assad and
Russia.
French Foreign Minister
Laurent Fabius said France
condemns the “brutal of-
fensive by the Syrian re-
gime with Russia’s support
to encircle and asphyxiate
Aleppo and its hundreds of
thousands of residents.”
In a statement, Fabius said
France backs de Mistura’s
move to suspend the talks
under such circumstances,
saying Assad’s regime and
its supporters “visibly don’t
want to contribute to them
in good faith, thus torpedo-
ing peace efforts.”q