Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Thursday, March 28th, 2024

Geneva II Talks Resume over Syria

Geneva II Talks Resume over Syria

GENEVA - The second round of the so-called Geneva II conference resumed here on Monday, ten days after the first round concluded with no concrete results.

The new round began with a meeting between UN-Arab League joint envoy Lakhdar Brahimi and the delegation of the Syrian opposition, which was to be followed by a meeting between Brahimi and the delegation of the Syrian government, according to UN sources.The meetings were set at Palais des Nations, where the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG) is located.Last week, UNOG spokeswoman Corinne Momal-Vanian said the second round was expected to last a “whole week.” The Syrian government said that in the new talks it would demand discussions on items of the 2012 Geneva I communique and on putting an end to terrorism in the war-torn country.The UN-backed international conference, dubbed Geneva II and aimed at ending a three-year-long conflict in Syria, gathered representatives from both the Syrian government and the opposition for the first time in three years.

During the first round of talks, the delegations both of the Syrian government and of the oppositional Syrian National Coalition (SNC) stuck to their demands.

The opposition demanded from the very beginning the establishment of a transitional government with full executives and without the presence of President Bashar al-Assad.

However, the government team took stopping terrorism as top priority and insisted that it was not going to hand over power to the coalition -- only to negotiate a political solution -- and that al-Assad’s departure was a red line.Evacuating women and children from the rebel-held old city of Homs was also discussed between the two sides in the first round of negotiations.Under an agreement recently concluded between Damascus and the UN, over 600 civilians were evacuated from the old quarter of Homs in central Syria on Sunday, and 60 food parcels were delivered to civilians inside the city by UN vehicles.

Governor of Homs, Talal Barazi, said on Sunday that most of the evacuees were women, children and old men, who would receive proper care and medical treatment, adding that the evacuation could continue for the next three days. (Xinhua)