In late December, the press service of UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said in a statement that a target date for intra-Syrian negotiations was January 25, 2016.
“We told [UN Special Envoy Staffan] de Mistura that this date is unrealistic because it doesn’t correspond to the criteria for beginning negotiations and the Syrians were not convinced that an actual political process is going on. We’ve already seen what happened at the Geneva 1 and 2 conferences,” Sabra told Sputnik.
He added that the Syrian opposition groups had still not made up their mind on participating in the January 25 talks.
Syria has been in a state of a civil war since political protests in 2011 escalated into an armed conflict. Government forces have been fighting on multiple fronts, against moderate opposition factions and numerous extremist insurgent groups, including Daesh and the Nusra Front.
In November, shortly after the Syrian talks in Vienna, the International Syria Support Group (ISSG), an international format aimed at resolving the Syrian issue, was formed, in particular, to boost the intra-Syrian talks between the opposition and the government forces.
The Damascus delegation has already expressed readiness to take part in the talks.
