UN mediator Staffan de Mistura took a positive stance as he emerged from talks with the opposition’s High Negotiation Committee (HNC):
“It was useful, it is up to the HNC to tell you what is their plan but it was a useful meeting.” De Mistura went to say he was optimistic as it is his profession to be so … “and determined.”
De Mistura is meeting with both sides in separate hotels in so-called ““proximity talks. Face to face negotiations are a long way off. But despite the mutual hostility, the opposition says it will continue talking.
The Syrian government’s delegation head, Bashar al-Jaafari, said Damascus was considering options such as ceasefires, humanitarian corridors and prisoner releases, but suggested they might come about as a result of the talks, not before them.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described the talks – the first in two years – as long overdue. “I urge all parties to put the people of Syria at the heart of their discussions, and above partisan interests,” he said.
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