Syrian rivals meet face-to-face for talks

11/02/2014| IslamWeb

Syrian regime and opposition negotiators met face-to-face for the first time during a second round of Geneva talks, as aid teams launched fresh efforts to evacuate civilians from the besieged Syrian city of Homs.

The session on Tuesday was chaired by joint UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations said.

"The Joint Special Representative is meeting this morning with the two delegations simultaneously. The meeting started at 10:00am," UN spokeswoman Corinne Momal-Vanian said.

The Syrian Red Crescent meanwhile said on Tuesday that it was preparing to reenter the Old City area of Homs, a day after it had announced 1,200 people had been evacuated from opposition-held areas that have been under siege for months.

The opposition delegation in Geneva warned late on Monday it would not return for a third round of talks if no progress was made in the current session.

Members of Syria's regime and opposition delegations blamed each other in Geneva on Monday for mortar bomb attacks on convoys bringing aid to Homs.

Reporting from the Swiss city on Monday, James Bays, Al Jazeera's diplomatic editor, said the atmosphere at the peace talks was "the worst it has been at any point during this process".

The opposition insists that the only way to put an end to the nearly three years of civil war is to put in place a transitional government - without Assad.

The Syrian regime, however, insists that Assad's future was not up for negotiation.

With the talks at an apparent standstill, Russia proposed on Monday that it and the US hold a collective meeting with the UN and the two sides to try to move things forward.

US and Russia, a key ally of Syria, initiated the Geneva II talks and pushed for eight months to get the parties to the negotiating table.
The nearly three-year regime brutal crackdown has killed about 136,000 people and displaced millions more.

PHOTO CAPTION

Men sitting on a bus pose for a photograph as they evacuate the battleground city of Homs, Syria, Friday, Feb. 7, 2014.

Al-Jazeera