Syrian government delegation returns to UN-brokered Geneva peace talks

Rasa - The Syrian government’s delegation has returned to Geneva in a bid to resume the UN-organized peace talks for Syria with the representatives of the foreign-backed opposition groups, more than a week after Damascus left the negotiations, arguing that the other side had made the road to peace impassable.

News ID: 435252

Date: 10 December 2017 - 20:00

RNA - The airplane, transporting Bashar al-Ja’afari, Syria’s UN ambassador and chief negotiator, along with his team, touched down at the international airport of the Swiss city of Geneva in a snowy weather on Sunday, a few hours after it took off from an airport in the Lebanese capital city of Beirut.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry on Thursday had announced that Ja’afari and his team would arrive in Geneva to “participate in the eighth round” of the peace negotiations.

On December 1, Ja’afari told reporters in Geneva that his team would fly back home and that “Damascus will decide” whether they would return to the Geneva talks, which resumed later on December 5.

Ja‘afari said at the time that there were “big problems in this round of talks” and that the opposition had “mined the road” to the talks, pointing to a statement released last month by the opposition insisting that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should step down before any peace deal could be reached.

That condition seems no longer tenable due to Syria’s continued victories against foreign-backed militants in the recent past.

The top Syrian negotiator arrived in the Swiss city on November 29, a day after the UN special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, officially kicked off the fresh round of separate talks, focusing on constitutional reform as well as elections.

The previous rounds of negotiations under the auspices of the UN over the past five years have failed to achieve tangible results, mainly due to the opposition’s insistence that the elected Syrian government cede power.

Meanwhile, Russia, Iran, and Turkey have been organizing a parallel peace process between Syria’s warring parties in Astana, Kazakhstan, since January. While they were launched years after the Geneva process, the talks in Astana have comparably resulted in significant achievements, including ceasefires and de-escalation zones that have reduced the actual fighting in Syria.

Moreover, Russia plans to hold an all-Syrian congress, known as the Syrian National Dialog Congress, in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, which would involve drawing up a framework for Syria’s future structure, adopting a new constitution and holding elections under the UN supervision.

In a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on November 20, Assad said he was “ready for dialog with all those who want to come up with a political settlement.”

On November 20, Assad, in a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, said that he was “ready for dialog with all those who want to come up with a political settlement.”

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