GENEVA — Syria’s government and opposition meet Monday for a seventh round of UN-sponsored peace talks with little expectation of a breakthrough to end the six-year conflict.
The talks in Geneva open after a ceasefire took effect in three provinces in southern Syria on Sunday, with a monitor reporting that the region was mostly quiet despite scattered violations.
The ceasefire was brokered by the United States, Russia and Jordan, the latest agreement reached outside the Geneva framework.
The peace process in the Swiss city has been increasingly overshadowed by a separate track organized by regime allies Russia and Iran, and rebel backer Turkey.
In principle, the new round of Geneva negotiations will focus on four so-called “baskets”: a new constitution, governance, elections and combating “terrorism.”
The last talks ended in May with little progress towards ending a war that has killed more than 320,000 people since it began in March 2011.
Syria’s opposition insists that President Bashar al-Assad must step down as part of any political solution to the war, but the government says Assad’s fate is not up for discussion.
Still, both sides are expected to participate once again, with Yehya al-Aridi, a spokesman for the opposition High Negotiations Committee, telling AFP he had “modest expectations.”
Washington, once a key opposition backer and peace process partner, stepped back from involvement in the diplomatic process after President Donald Trump took office in January.
But its involvement in the south Syria ceasefire raises the prospect it may be re-engaging in a limited fashion.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said American and Russian officials had discussed “other areas in Syria that we can continue to work together on.”
And in Washington, a senior State Department official said both countries had a role to play in ending Syria’s conflict.
“If there’s going to be a resolution of the conflict in Syria, we both need to somehow be involved in it.” — AFP
