REPORT: UN says some ideas aired at Syria talks, as well as rhetoric

Some ideas have been floated at Syrian peace talks that began on Monday, United Nations mediator Staffan de Mistura said after a meeting with the Syrian government delegation.

De Mistura said the first meeting was preparatory and a further meeting with the government delegation on Wednesday would focus on the core issues.

Asked about the apparent gulf between government and opposition negotiators on the question of Syria's political transition, he said negotiations and peace talks always begin with strong or rhetorical statements.  

 

The momentum to reduce hostilities and deliver more aid that has been built up in recent weeks in war-torn Syria must not be lost at "a moment of truth" as the conflict enters its sixth year, said a top humanitarian adviser to the United Nations.

The first of three rounds of peace talks opened on Monday, aimed at negotiating a "clear roadmap" for a future Syria.
  
Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council and a former U.N. aid chief, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation the current cessation of hostilities in Syria is "holding better than even sceptics would have believed".
 
And a majority of besieged areas had been reached with aid, following an agreement in Munich in February between major and regional powers, with "good hopes" to access the remaining cut-off places soon, he added in a telephone interview.
 
"But it's all going to be in vain if there is not a political process that succeeds," said Egeland, who is advising the U.N. special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, on humanitarian issues.
 
"It is so important to repeat every morning in front of the mirror: there are no military solutions here, but neither are there humanitarian solutions. More bombs and more blankets will not fix it.