REPORT: Syrian talks haven't achieved much, but will continue - mediator

International mediator Lakhdar Brahimi said a first day of face-to-face talks between Syria's opposing sides had not yielded significant results but he hoped they would lead to aid supplies reaching the besieged city of Homs.

"We haven't achieved much but we are continuing," Brahimi told a news conference on Saturday after two meetings between the government and opposition delegations at United Nations headquarters in Geneva.

He said if an agreement could be reached on Sunday, a humanitarian convoy could move into Homs city the next day. He also said he planned to discuss on Sunday prisoner releases by the two sides. Brahimi said that he set out his plans in the morning meeting for the progress of the talks over the coming weeks.

Syrian government and opposition delegations met briefly in the presence of international mediator Lakhdar Brahimi at the United Nations on Saturday, their first session of talks aimed at launching political negotiations to end Syria's civil war.
   
"The first session has ended - Brahimi spoke for 30 minutes and none of the delegates said anything," opposition delegate Anas al-Abdah told reporters after the meeting.
   
The two sides entered and left the room through separate doors, Abdah added, and were due to meet again at 4 p.m. (1500 GMT) for talks on humanitarian issues.
   
He said Brahimi told them the first two days of the talks will focus on negotiations to lift sieges of civilians including in the central city of Homs, local ceasefires and humanitarian access, but the core of the negotiations should be about resolving the three-year conflict.
   
"He (Brahimi) told us this is a political conference ... based on Geneva 1," Abdah said, referring to a June 2012 communique which called for the establishment of a transitional governing body in Syria.

Meanwhile, the Syrian government reiterated its rejection on Saturday of a proposal to form a transitional ruling body as part of a political solution to the country's nearly three-year conflict.
   
"We have complete reservations regarding it," Information Minister Omran Zoabi told reporters shortly before the government was due to hold its first talks with an opposition delegation in Geneva, in the presence of international mediator Lakhdar Brahimi.
   
"Syria is a state with institutions," Zoabi said. "A transitional governing body ... happens where the state is in disintegration, or has no institutions."


REUTERS

For more details, watch the full report in the video above