The Syrian government delegation, headed by Dr. Bashar al-Jaafari, held on Thursday a third session of talks with United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura in the framework of the seventh round of the intra-Syrian dialogue.
The talks focused on the counterterrorism basket, while technical meetings were held between experts from the Syrian government and de Mistrua's delegations.
Earlier Thurdsay, de Mistura ruled out direct talks between the delegations of Syrian government and the “opposition.” “We are pushing for direct talks but I do not expect them and we are looking for common points between the delegations,” de Mistura said in a statement.
On Wednesday, Mohannad Dlykan, the representative of the opposition’s “Moscow platform,” said in a statement after a meeting with de Mistura that setting up preconditions was unacceptable and that his platform does not want to discuss what is not included in U.N. Security Council Resolution No. 2254. He said that his platform agreed to the paper presented by de Mistura.
In the same context, the head of the delegation of the opposition’s “Cairo platform,” Firas al-Khalidi, announced on Wednesday that his platform agreed on the principles paper presented by de Mistura, highlighting the convergence of views and confidence-building that has begun to be established between the various opposition platforms.
He said that his platform seeks to have direct negotiations in order to start the political process, but that procedural matters need first to be completed.
This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
