The talks stem from an agreement reached in Vienna in November by the International Syria Support Group (ISSG), comprising the Arab League, the European Union, the United Nations, and 17 countries including the United States and Russia, as part of an effort to end the war with an agreement on new governance, a new constitution and new elections.
Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, has said the Geneva meetings will start with proximity talks and are expected to last for six months, with government and opposition delegations sitting in separate rooms and UN officials shuttling between them. The immediate priorities to be discussed are a broad ceasefire, humanitarian aid, and halting the threat posed by Daesh, also known as ISIL.
"No preconditions before & throughout #SyriaTalks" — Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura https://t.co/8ztQ9LlWeK pic.twitter.com/gculszJPkJ
— United Nations (@UN) January 26, 2016
However, key opposition members refused to take part in the talks on Friday until an agreement is reached on aid entering besieged towns. Their absence has threatened to derail the talks, which are brokered by the Saudi-backed High Negotiations Committee, which met in Riyadh on Thursday.
De Mistura is due to meet a Syrian government delegation on Friday to kick off the first peace talks for almost two years and will later meet other participants in the talks, his office said in a statement: "Mr de Mistura will start by meeting the government's delegation today, headed by the Permanent Representative of the Syrian Arab Republic to the United Nations, Mr. Bashar Jaafari. He will continue meetings with other participants in the talks and with representatives of the civil society subsequently."
"As indicated by Mr. de Mistura in his press conference on 25 January, these will be proximity talks, meaning that the parties will be meeting with him separately."
Plea to Syrians
Ahead of the talks, de Mistura issued a video, shown on Syrian TV Thursday in which he said: "You have seen enough conferences, two of them already taken place. This one cannot fail. We’ve heard your voices, we heard when you have been telling us so many times wherever we met you, you Syrian people, you women, men and children of Syria, saying: Enough, 'khalas, kefaya,' enough killing, murdering, torturing, prisons."
UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura's message to the women, men & children of Syria, ahead of #SyriaTalks https://t.co/u6cQUvKGMg
— UN Geneva (@UNGeneva) January 28, 2016
When he sent out the invitations to the talks on Tuesday, de Mistura said he was under no illusions about the difficulties in ending a war that has killed more than 250,000 people, sent over 4 million fleeing the country, displaced 6.5 million internally, and put 13.5 million people inside the country in urgent need of humanitarian aid.
