Talks aimed at ending Syria’s brutal war will begin in Geneva on Friday, the UN mediator said, after a delay over who will represent the country’s fractious opposition.
Negotiations had been scheduled to open on Monday, but UN envoy Staffan de Mistura told reporters in Geneva “a stalemate” over the makeup of the delegations had forced the date back.
He said he expected to be able to send invitations to the delegates on Tuesday, but declined to say who would be asked to attend, only saying the list would be “as inclusive as possible.”
The talks are part of a UN-backed plan agreed last year that envisaged negotiations, followed by the creation of a transitional government, a new constitution and elections within 18 months.
The United States and Russia have been piling on pressure for the talks to get under way, but disagreement over who should represent the opposition have made it difficult to get started, De Mistura said.
The so-called “proximity talks” are scheduled to last six months, with the first round lasting between two and three weeks, he said, adding he expected to do “a lot of shuttling” between the sides.
“We are all feeling… the time has come to try hard to produce an outcome,” De Mistura said.
The renewed efforts to end Syria’s war, which has killed more than 260,000 people and displaced half the country s population, come as the conflict approaches its fifth year.
Seeking broad ceasefire
On Monday, at least 23 people, most of them from the Ahrar al-Sham rebel group, were killed by a truck suicide bomber in the Syrian city of Aleppo on Monday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The Britain-based monitor also said 16 people including 11 Islamist fighters had been killed Monday in ballistic missile fire in Syria s northwestern Idlib province.
De Mistura said that the first priority would be to try to secure “a broad ceasefire” and space to deliver humanitarian aid to suffering Syrians.
He explained that he was moving forward cautiously to avoid a repeat of the failure seen when the UN last tried to put the sides together.
The so-called Geneva 2 talks in early 2014 saw De Mistura s predecessor Lakhdar Brahimi host high-profile but fruitless meetings in the Swiss cities of Montreux and Geneva.
“I’ve been very much aware of the danger of what happened in Geneva 2,” he said, adding that he wanted “to make sure that when and if we start, we start at least on the right foot.”
“This is not Geneva 3. This is leading to what we hope will be a Geneva success story if we are able to push it forward,” he added.
A statement from Russia s foreign ministry said US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov had called on De Mistura to set a start date “as quickly as possible,” underscoring the growing urgency among global powers to end the crisis.
Last month, several key opposition bodies, including rebel groups, formed a coalition known as the High Negotiations Committee to participate in the mooted talks.
But the coalition excludes Syria s main Kurdish party and a range of other opposition figures.
Moscow has sought to have some of those excluded participate in the talks either within a broad opposition delegation, or in a second opposition delegation to the negotiations.
But the High Negotiations Committee accuses regime ally Russia of trying to stack the opposition delegation with figures close to the regime, and has threatened to boycott the talks if other opposition representatives are invited.
Over the weekend, Kerry meanwhile met members of the Committee in Saudi Arabia to urge them to participate, warning the opposition risked “losing friends” if it boycotted, committee member Fuad Aliko told AFP.
Aliko said it would take a final decision on whether to attend the talks in a meeting on Tuesday.
Extremist threat grows
The renewed efforts to end Syria’s war comes amid global angst over the rise of the brutal Islamic State group and an unprecedented influx of migrants into Europe last year.
On Monday, Europol’s chief warned IS “had developed a new combat style capability to carry out a campaign of large-scale terrorist attacks on a global stage — with a particular focus in Europe.”
In November, IS claimed responsibility for the deadly November 13 Paris attacks that left 130 people dead and 350 others wounded.
Despite the ramped-up efforts to end Syria s war, hopes for the talks remain modest.
In addition to the opposition’s disarray, analysts say Syria s regime has been emboldened by Russia’s military intervention.
Moscow began air strikes in Syria on September 30, saying it was targeting IS and other “terrorist groups.”
Opposition forces and activists accuse it of focusing on moderate and extremist rebels, and of killing civilians, an allegation Moscow dismisses as “absurd.”
