GENEVA-
Syria’s rivals on Saturday held their first face-to-face meetings for talks aimed at ending nearly three years of conflict which has killed 130,000 people and destabilized the wider Middle East.
Government and opposition delegates faced each other across a negotiating table at the United Nations headquarters for a total of three hours in the presence of mediator Lakhdar Brahimi, who described the meetings as “a good beginning”.
While political differences which Brahimi says must form the core of their talks appear insurmountable for now, the two sides focused on Saturday on a possible humanitarian deal aimed at building confidence in the negotiating process.
Brahimi said he hoped that authorities in Syria would approve access on Sunday for an aid convoy to reach the rebel-held centre of Homs, allowing it to be delivered on Monday.
“We haven’t achieved much, but we are continuing,” he told a news conference after the talks concluded for the day.
Anxious to avoid any possible confrontations, organizers ensured the two parties entered and left the negotiation room for the morning and afternoon sessions through separate doors.
Brahimi said they faced each other during the meeting but addressed their remarks through him. “This is what happens in civilized discussions, you talk to the president or the speaker or the chairman,” he said.
The veteran international mediator also said he set out his plans for the talks over the coming weeks, stressing that they must ultimately be focused on implementing a June 2012 declaration which called for a transitional governing body to be set up with the consent of Syria’s opposing forces.
“He told us this is a political conference … based on Geneva 1,” opposition delegate Anas al-Abdah said, referring to the 2012 communiqué announced by world powers.
President Bashar al-Assad’s government delegation said it broadly accepted Geneva 1, but repeated its longstanding opposition to the idea of a transitional body, saying it was inappropriate and unnecessary.
“Syria is a state with institutions,” he added. “A transitional governing body … happens where the state is in disintegration, or has no institutions,” said Information Minister Omran Zoabi.
The opposition has stressed that the government delegation accepts the principle of setting up the transitional body and bring an end to Assad’s rule.
The president says only Syrian voters can choose their ruler and that he may well stand again in an election due to be held by June this year.
-AGENCIES
