The United Nation’s special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura declared the start of a sixth-round of peace talks this morning, in the Swiss city of Geneva, aimed at safeguarding a political horizon to the raging conflict in Syria. The UN envoy also took the opportunity to reject dismissive comments by Syrian President Bashar Assad, who labelled the Geneva process as an unsubstantial process meant to satisfy the media, which is used as a diplomatic smokescreen for more war.
“If being a mediator and trying to find common points is ‘being used’, I think I would accept that. Because the alternative is no discussion, no hope, no political horizon, just waiting for facts on the ground to take place. And that, I think, is something that a mediator has to take into account,” said de Mistura.
De Mistura said that the Geneva talks was the political pillar for the Russian-backed Summit in Astana that established de-escalation zones in Syria, aimed at reducing violence between government and rebel forces.
“We would like to be able to make sure that meanwhile, the two are working in some form of sync. I give an example: everybody has been telling us, and we agree, that any type of reduction of violence, in this case de-escalation, cannot be sustained unless there is a political horizon, in one direction or the other. That is exactly what we are pushing for,” added de Mistura.
Previous rounds of UN-backed talks have produced an agreement that the warring sides will discuss a four-part agenda, but no progress has yet been made on any of the topics presented, and they have marched at funeral pace, punctuated by grandstanding media appearances by rival negotiators.