It will be interesting to see what these delegates come up with once they get over their discomfort.
Syria peace talks grind towards pivotal Assad question
GENEVA | BY TOM MILES AND SULEIMAN AL-KHALIDI
The Syrian government's delegation leaded by Bashar al-Jaafari attends a news conference after a meeting on Syria at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, in this March 16, 2016 file photo.
REUTERS/DENIS BALIBOUSE/FILES
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Syrian government negotiators at Geneva peace talks are coming under unaccustomed pressure to discuss something far outside their comfort zone: the fate of President Bashar al-Assad. And they are doing their best to avoid it.
U.N. mediator Staffan de Mistura describes Syria's political transition as "the mother of all issues" and, emboldened by the Russian and U.S. muscle that brought the participants to the negotiating table, he refuses to drop the subject.
After a week of talks in Geneva, he praised the opposition for the depth of their ideas, but criticised the veteran diplomats on the government side for getting bogged down.
"The government is currently focussing very much on principles, which are necessary in any type of common ground on the transition," he said. "But I hope next week, and I have been saying so to them, that we will get their opinion, their details on how they see the political transition taking place."
Arguments over Assad's fate were a major cause of the failure of previous U.N. peace efforts in 2012 and 2014 to end a civil war that has now lasted five years, killed more than 250,000 people and caused a refugee crisis.
The main opposition, along with the United States and other Western nations, has long insisted any peace deal must include his departure from power, while the Syrian government and Russia have said there is no such clause in the international agreements that underwrite the peace process.
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Syria peace talks grind towards pivotal Assad question
Syria peace talks grind towards pivotal Assad question
GENEVA | BY TOM MILES AND SULEIMAN AL-KHALIDI
The Syrian government's delegation leaded by Bashar al-Jaafari attends a news conference after a meeting on Syria at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, in this March 16, 2016 file photo.
REUTERS/DENIS BALIBOUSE/FILES
left
1 of 3
right
Syrian government negotiators at Geneva peace talks are coming under unaccustomed pressure to discuss something far outside their comfort zone: the fate of President Bashar al-Assad. And they are doing their best to avoid it.
U.N. mediator Staffan de Mistura describes Syria's political transition as "the mother of all issues" and, emboldened by the Russian and U.S. muscle that brought the participants to the negotiating table, he refuses to drop the subject.
After a week of talks in Geneva, he praised the opposition for the depth of their ideas, but criticised the veteran diplomats on the government side for getting bogged down.
"The government is currently focussing very much on principles, which are necessary in any type of common ground on the transition," he said. "But I hope next week, and I have been saying so to them, that we will get their opinion, their details on how they see the political transition taking place."
Arguments over Assad's fate were a major cause of the failure of previous U.N. peace efforts in 2012 and 2014 to end a civil war that has now lasted five years, killed more than 250,000 people and caused a refugee crisis.
The main opposition, along with the United States and other Western nations, has long insisted any peace deal must include his departure from power, while the Syrian government and Russia have said there is no such clause in the international agreements that underwrite the peace process.
Continue reading at:
Syria peace talks grind towards pivotal Assad question