REPORT: Brahimi says no breakthrough in Syria talks

International mediator Lakhdar Brahimi said on Monday that the Syrian parties were still discussing how women and children can leave the Old City of Homs, but that there had been no decision on allowing access for an aid convoy into the besieged city.
   
Brahimi, addressing a news conference after meeting both sides, said that there was an apparent will to continue the negotiations, but he never expected any miracle to end the nearly three-year war.
   
"I told you yesterday that there was an agreement by the government that women and children can come out of Old City in Homs, I think they still discussing how that can be done. I think that the government is willing to make it happen, but it is not easy because there are snipers and there are all sorts of problems," Brahimi said.
  
He added: "Unfortunately there is no agreement on a ceasefire or the alleviation of the level of violence practised in Syria."

Earlier, the opposition said a "declaration of principles" that the Syrian government presented at a peace conference in Geneva on Monday fails to address the main objective of the talks.
 
Syria's government delegation presented a declaration of principles for negotiations which did not mention a transition of power and was immediately rejected by the opposition, Syrian television said.   

The "declaration of basic principles" said Syrians would choose a political system without "imposed formulas" from abroad, an apparent reference to Western and regional demands that President Bashar al-Assad step down and hand power to a transitional government.

Meanwhile, the United States called on the Syrian government to allow aid convoys into the Old City of Homs, where "people are starving", and said that all civilians must be allowed to leave the besieged area freely.                     

The evacuation of women and children from rebel-held Homs, as proposed by the Damascus delegation at peace talks, is "not sufficient" and not an alternative to badly-needed aid, it said.

"The situation is desperate and the people are starving," U.S. State Department spokesman Edgar Vasquez said in a statement issued in Geneva as the two warring sides met with mediator Lakhdar Brahimi.                   

The UN mediator said he hoped talks, which continued on Monday in Geneva, could move on to broaching the central issue that divides the two sides after three years of civil war - Syria's political future and that of President Bashar al-Assad.                 

Homs, occupying a strategic location in the center of the country, has been a key battleground. Assad's forces retook many of the surrounding areas last year, leaving rebels under siege in the city center, along with thousands of civilians.        

Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad told a news conference on Sunday that the government would let women and children leave the city center if rebels gave them safe passage. U.N. mediator Lakhdar Brahimi said he understood that they would be free to quit Homs immediately.    

Mekdad said: "If the armed terrorists in Homs allow women and children to leave the old city of Homs, we will allow them every access. Not only that, we will provide them with shelter, medicines and all that is needed.                   

Western diplomats said the Syrian government should move quickly to allow this to happen or face a possible United Nations Security Council resolution, with Russia and China being urged to reverse their opposition to such a move.              

BLOCKADE              

In Homs itself, however, opposition activists said rebels demanded a complete end to the blockade, not just a limited ceasefire. An online video showed demonstrators with Islamist flags denouncing the Geneva talks as "treachery".          

Brahimi, who presided on Saturday over the first direct meeting between the two delegations, was expected to hold another joint session on Monday to begin discussion of a U.N. plan for a transitional government.                 

Acknowledging the slow start to proceedings which began with a formal international conference on Wednesday, Brahimi said: "This is a political negotiation ... Our negotiation is not the main place where humanitarian issues are discussed.                

There was little sign of a softening of positions on the core issue - whether or not Assad should quit now, as the opposition and their Western and Arab backers say was agreed by a U.N. conference at Geneva 18 months ago.                   

For the opposition, spokesman Louay Safi said Monday's session with Brahimi would show if the government was willing to negotiate: "Tomorrow we start talking about transition from dictatorship to democracy. The regime is ... stalling."       

PRISONERS                

Brahimi said opposition delegates, who have asked for the release of nearly 50,000 detainees, had agreed to a government request to try to provide a list of those held by armed rebel groups - though many of these groups, fighting among themselves, do not recognize the negotiators' authority.          

Mekdad said the government had examined an opposition list of 47,000 people believed to have been arrested by Assad's forces and found most had either never been held or were now free. He also denied that any children were being held.                        

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, whose government has helped Assad resist Western pressure but backs a negotiated peace to prevent the conflict spreading, called for progress on aid, unblocking besieged areas and prisoner exchanges.                         

Underlining the difficulty of implementing even local agreements on the ground, a U.N. agency trying to deliver aid to a besieged rebel area of Damascus said state checkpoints had hampered its work, despite assurances from the government that it would allow the distributions.             

Profound mutual mistrust and the absence from Geneva of powerful Islamist opposition groups make any substantial progress very difficult, and previous aid deals and ceasefires in Syria have proved short-lived.


REUTERS

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