MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The ceasefire in Syria is holding by and large, the intra-Syria talks in Geneva would be impossible if it were to break down, UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said Wednesday.
"Even if, frankly, there [are] still some difficulties, it is still fragile, but it is holding by and large. We would not have been able to have these talks if there was a breakdown of the ceasefire. There are spoilers, we know it, we have seen it all the time during the last talks, and perhaps they may even be attempting or maybe tempted to do something before or during the talks in order to provoke one side or the other to walk out or to not accept talking but we will try to control it," de Mistura told a press conference on the eve of the intra-Syria talks in Geneva.
"Today, the Russian Federation at the ceasefire task force did announce to everyone and every country present and to myself that they have formally requested the government of Syria to silence their own skies in the areas touched by the ceasefire during the intra-Syria talks. We have been requesting those who have the influence on the opposition to try themselves also to do the same," de Mistura told a press conference ahead of the beginning of the intra-Syria talks in Geneva on Thursday.
UN Special Envoy for Syria said that some representatives of the new US administration told them they wanted to revisit their strategy on Syria and countering terrorism.
"I was in Washington recently and I was able to meet some representatives of the new administration and in fact in particular I did meet the Secretary of State [Rex] Tillerson. And I must say in all fairness any new administration requires some time before devising a new strategy. They have announced that they want to revisit their strategy regarding the fight against Daesh, ISIL [terrorist group banned in Russia] and that by implication what they’re doing in Iraq and Syria," de Mistura told a press conference a day before the official beginning of the new round of intra-Syria talks.
The United Nations is not yet in the position to speak on behalf of the United States on the issue of its position, the UN official said.
"I do know that they are very much interested in fighting Daesh, I know that they are having instructions from president [Donald] Trump to actually develop a new strategy or new options of a strategy," de Mistura added.
UN Special Envoy for Syria said that the Astana platform on Syria is a very positive initiative, the United Nations hopes that there will be more meeting in that format.
"We mean what we say, Astana has been and is a very positive initiative, there’ve been now Astana-2, Astana-3, and we will hope that there will be more of Astana," de Mistura said.
The incident where a humanitarian aid convoy heading to the region of Al-Waer in Syria’s Homs had to be diverted due to fighting on the ground will be investigated by the United Nations, according to de Mistura.
On Tuesday, a source told Sputnik that a planned delivery of UN humanitarian aid to Al-Waer was derailed the previous day due to an attack of opposition and Nusra Front group (banned in Russia) on the convoy. Later the same day, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that the convoy had to return to Homs over escalation of fighting on the ground.
"The circumstances about sniping, attacking and diverting 22 trucks were analyzed by the [humanitarian] task force, and there was a decision to actually one, make an inquiry about it and two, take this as an example of how dangerous these days any type of initiative that may be aimed at spoiling the ceasefire," de Mistura said.
