Damascus Delegation Head Denies Rumors on Departure From Syria Talks in Geneva

© REUTERS / Denis BalibouseSyrian government's head of delegation, Bashar al-Jaafari attends a news conference after a meeting on Syria at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, March 21, 2016
Syrian government's head of delegation, Bashar al-Jaafari attends a news conference after a meeting on Syria at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, March 21, 2016 - Sputnik International
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Bashar Jaafari, the head of the Syrian government delegation at the intra-Syria talks, denied the rumors that he had left the negotiations, calling them "wishful thinking."

GENEVA (Sputnik) — On Sunday evening, sources at the talks shared with Sputnik that Jaafari had left Geneva for Damascus for consultations due to the alleged refusal by UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura to focus primarily on counterterrorism and not political transition issues.

Meanwhile, other Sputnik's sources could not confirm that information.

"Wishful thinking… I am still in Geneva…I said in my press conference that my next meeting with the special envoy was confirmed for Tuesday afternoon, " Jaafari told Sputnik, asked to comment on the rumors.

A Kurdish man waves a large flag of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) political wing, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), during a demonstration against the exclusion of Syrian-Kurds from the Geneva talks in the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli on February 4, 2016 - Sputnik International
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The fourth round of UN-backed intra-Syrian talks between the government and opposition factions began on Thursday. The discussions are expected to center around political settlement in Syria. However, the talks format has not been agreed on so far.

On Friday, de Mistura gave a procedural paper to the delegations of Damascus and the HNC with his proposals for the current round of Syria talks. According to a Sputnik source, the UN special envoy expressed his support for direct talks and also suggested focusing on three main topics — governance, constitution and elections, while leaving the issues of ceasefire and the fight against terrorism for Astana-format negotiations.

De Mistura's proposal triggered more disagreement between the parties, as Damascus considers counterterrorism efforts to be extremely important, necessary to discuss on all tracks and not only in Astana. This position was reaffirmed by Jaafari on Saturday.

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