GENEVA (Sputnik) — De Mistura added that there were no set preconditions for the restart of the peace talks in Geneva, except for the complex logistics.
"I have indicated as a penciled date the afternoon of [March] 9… We need to have a penciled date and we need to make sure that everyone knows that this is not open-ended. And we need to maintain pressure both on the success of the cessation of hostilities and the delivery of aid in order to make sure that they do give a feeling of credibility to the people in Syria want to see the political process being connected with facts on the ground," de Mistura told reporters.
The new round of intra-Syrian negotiations in Geneva is set to last an initial period of 15 days, a Syrian opposition source told Sputnik on Thursday, citing the official UN invitation to participants of the talks.
"On behalf of the Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, we are pleased to inform you that United Nations-facilitated intra-Syrian talks will be reconvened in Geneva, Switzerland, as of the afternoon of Wednesday, 9 March 2016, and for the initial period of 15 days," the invitation reads.
The UN-brokered Syrian peace talks were set to restart in Geneva on March 7 after being postponed in early February because of the parties’ inability to reach compromise on a number of issues.
