UN restarts Syria peace talks despite government delegation's absence

Geneva, (IINA) - The UN resumed Syrian peace talks Wednesday in Geneva with only opposition negotiators attending, as regime delegates are scheduled to arrive Friday due to parliament elections, DPA reported.
UN mediator Staffan de Mistura did not comment on the elections, saying he is only interested in an election that the UN Security Council said should take place under UN supervision within 18 months.
This round of talks, the third since February, is to focus on "political transition, governance, constitution", de Mistura told reporters Wednesday.
In the previous round in March, regime delegates were not willing to discuss a change of power and the establishment of a transitional governing body as demanded by the opposition and the UN Security Council.
De Mistura said the Syrian government and its allies Russia and Iran had signaled to him that they supported talks on these topics, but he acknowledged that the nature of the political transition had yet to be discussed.
"It has become clear that Assad is the disease that has struck Syria", opposition chief negotiator Asaad al-Zoubi said in Geneva.
He called Wednesday's election in government-held areas a "farce" and asserted that "Syria can only heal with the departure of Assad and emblematic figures in the regime".
The elections are expected to be dominated by President Bashar al-Assad's Arab nationalist Baath Party and other regime loyalists.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier warned the Al-Assad regime against using the polls as a pretext for delaying the new round of peace talks.
"Under current conditions, where hundreds of thousands are denied free access to food and medicine, fair elections are inconceivable", Steinmeier told DPA.
Meanwhile, France condemned the polls as a "sham". "They are being held without a true electoral campaign, under the aegis of an oppressive regime without international observation", a French Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
Syria's civil war, which started in 2011 after al-Assad's forces launched a brutal crackdown on protests, has cost more than a quarter of a million lives and driven half the country's populations from their homes, according to UN estimates.
AG/IINA

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