The United Nations special envoy for Syria has raised the possibility of direct talks between Damascus and opposition negotiators before the next round of peace talks in the Swiss city of Geneva.
Staffan de Mistura made the prediction on Thursday during the seventh round of the Geneva talks, which started on Monday and will wrap up on Saturday.
He ruled out the probability of the Saudi-backed Syria opposition bloc, High Negotiations Committee (HNC), uniting with the Moscow- and Cairo-based opposition groups for direct talks with the Syrian government during the ongoing round of the Geneva talks.
Asked whether such a meeting could take place before the 8th round of the Geneva discussions scheduled for late August, de Mistura replied, “Perhaps even earlier.”
“I’m not pushing for it. Because I want, when it happens, that there should not be a row but should be real talks. We are actually pushing for areas where they do have common points,” he added.
The UN official made the remarks before a meeting with Bashar Jaafari, the Syrian government’s chief negotiator and ambassador to the UN. Jaafari has already held two official meetings with de Mistura in Geneva this week.
Source: News Now/Press TV Online
