On Tuesday, following the trilateral Russia-US-UN meeting, UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said that the parties had made progress and that the negotiations could resume by the end of August.
"The next round of talks in Geneva could become a small step forward but it is unrealistic to think that it would become the last and final [stage]. There are still too many problems and disagreements between the parties. It is unlikely that a final plan for a political transition will be formulated," Ahmad said.
"I hope, the parties will, at least, have a final review of terms and proposals for the political settlement and work out a transparent and clear mechanism for direct negotiations or a round table as before we used to meet with de Mistura only in the form of proximity talks," Ahmad said.
Syria has been mired in civil war since March 2011, with government forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad fighting numerous opposition factions and extremist groups. The Syrian government delegation, as well as three opposition groups — the Riyadh-formed HNC, the Moscow-Cairo and the Hmeimim groups — have been taking part in the UN-mediated Geneva talks on peaceful settlement of the conflict.
The latest round of the talks took place in Geneva on April 13-27. The HNC walked out of the negotiations, citing the continuous fighting in Syria and the lack of progress on humanitarian issues.
