Syria peace talks still on for January 25

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at http://ift.tt/jcXqJW.

Friday 15 Jan 2016 - 16:54 Makkah mean time-5-4-1437 Geneva, (IINA) - The UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said on Wednesday that Syria peace talks were still planned to start in Geneva on January 25, Reuters reported. He made the remarks after meeting representatives of the U.S, Russia and other major powers  Mistura told reporters they had discussed access to the government-besieged town of Madaya, where the first aid deliveries were made on Monday to starving civilians after three months. "This meeting was essential in order to move forward on the Geneva talks, and there are issues still, and very much at stake, that's why I needed to consult them", he stressed. Assistant U.S Secretary of State Anne Patterson said that the talks were still "on track" for January 25 and that she had a "good conversation" with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov and senior officials from Britain, China and France. "Everyone's primary concern is humanitarian access given some of the dire situations that are taking place inside of Syria", Patterson told reporters. Some Syrian rebel groups said earlier on Wednesday they would not participate in the peace talks unless humanitarian articles in the latest UN resolution on the conflict were implemented. De Mistura's office issued a statement saying that officials from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council had agreed to push for "sustained and unimpeded access to a number of besieged areas" in Syria's civil war. "The Special Envoy and his team will continue working hard to issue the invitations in order to ensure maximum inclusivity, with a view to starting the intra-Syrian Geneva Talks on 25 January", it said. The opposition council told de Mistura that the Damascus government would have to take goodwill steps, including a prisoner release before they would go to negotiations. Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Twitter that Gatilov would meet representatives of various opposition groups on Thursday. It also said the international powers needed to do more work to agree on lists of groups to be regarded as terrorists. Patterson noted that the U.S and Russia were working "very assiduously" on the question of defining terrorist groups. They had been discussing "the terrorism issue in the whole Syria-Iraq corridor" for months, and military and intelligence contacts were continuing. AG/IINA