Page 10 - ARUBA TODAY

A10 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 11 July 2017
UN envoy says Syria cease-fire generally holding

By JAMEY KEATEN bombs,” de Mistura said.
PHILIP ISSA He cautioned against de-
Associated Press escalation deals leading to
GENEVA (AP) — The U.N.’s eventual partition, saying
special envoy for Syrian they should be an interim
peace talks on Monday measure only until an over-
said a U.S. and Russia- all cease-fire and peace
brokered cease-fire in the settlement can be found.
country’s southwest was The Geneva talks are ex-
generally holding despite pected to last through the
some “teething problems,” week.
adding he hoped it would De Mistura will be shuttling
contribute positively to talks between the two sides,
between the government which have not been face-
and opposition. to-face in the same room
A new round of indirect except at a ceremony to
talks that began Monday is resume the talks earlier this
the seventh so far between year.
Syrian government repre- The U.N.-led diplomatic ef-
sentatives and opposition fort seeks partly to ensure
leaders to try to wind down humanitarian aid deliver-
the battered country’s ies to Syria and plan for the
6-year-old civil war. day after the war is over.
Staffan de Mistura, speak- UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, right, sits next to UN Deputy Special Envoy for Syria At the press conference,
ing at a press conference in Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy, left, as he attends a round of negotiations with Bashar al-Ja’afari, Syrian de Mistura avoided ques-
Geneva, said he is not ex- chief negotiator and Ambassador of the Permanent Representative Mission of Syria to the UN New tions about any political
York, during Syria talks at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzer-
pecting any breakthroughs land, Monday, July 10, 2017. transition away from Presi-
but rather “some incremen- (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Pool Photo via AP) dent Bashar Assad, saying
tal developments.” al-Masalmeh said it was The agreed-on cease-fire Moscow. the talks are focusing on
The start of the talks in Ge- quiet in the city of Daraa, covers three provinces in “We believe that de-esca- de-escalation and stabili-
neva coincided with the near the Jordanian bor- war-torn southern Syria. lation will be contributing to zation for now.
first full day of the cease-fire der. The Britain-based Syr- It’s the first tangible out- not only the talks in Geneva The Syrian opposition is de-
for southern Syria that was ian Observatory for Human come following months of and in Astana of course but termined to achieve a polit-
brokered last week by the Rights monitoring group strategy and diplomacy will also reassure the Syrian ical transition in Damascus,
United States, Russia and reported light shelling and between the new Trump people that while we are while Assad’s government
Jordan. bombardment in the city administration and Russian talking the people are not insists the talks should priori-
Opposition activist Ahmad overnight. President Vladimir Putin’s going to die because of tize “the war on terror.”q

New UN mission in Colombia
to focus on reintegrating FARC

By EDITH M. LEDERER tions on the size, operation-
Associated Press al aspects, and mandate
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — of the new mission within 45
The Security Council unani- days.
mously approved a resolu- Latin America’s longest-
tion Monday authorizing a running conflict caused at
new U.N. political mission in least 250,000 deaths, left
Colombia to focus on rein- 60,000 people missing and
tegrating leftist rebels into displaced more than 7 mil-
society after more than 50 lion. After years of thorny
years of war — a task the negotiations, the rebels
United Nations calls the reached an agreement
most urgent challenge fol- with the government last
lowing the rebels’ hando- year to transition into a po-
ver of their last weapons. litical party, but serious dif-
A British-drafted resolution ferences remain over the
establishes the United Na- peace deal. In January
tions Verification Mission in 2016, before the agree-
Colombia for an initial pe- ment, the Colombian gov-
riod of one year starting on ernment and rebels from
Sept. 17, when the man- the Revolutionary Armed
date of the current mission Forces of Colombia known
that has been monitoring as the FARC jointly asked
the cease-fire and disar- the United Nations to moni-
mament process ends. tor any cease-fire and dis-
It asks Secretary-General armament process, a rare
Antonio Guterres to make request to the U.N. for help,
detailed recommenda- which it accepted.q