GENEVA, AP, Feb 3, 2016 — The U.N. envoy for Syria has announced a “temporary pause” in peace talks in Geneva amid intensified fighting, saying the process will resume later this month.
De Mistura said he had set a new date of Feb. 25 for the resumption of the talks.
The announcement comes just two days after de Mistura opened the first talks in two years aimed at ending a five-year war that has killed more than 250,000 people and displaced an estimated 11 million people.
The chief negotiator of the Syrian opposition says the government’s decision to allow aid into a besieged Damascus suburb was a “step to silence the Syrian people,” implying that the aid delivery was an empty gesture.
Mohammed Alloush told reporters Wednesday that the aid delivery to Moadamiyeh is “a step that we describe as good, but not enough at all.”
He says he is not optimistic regarding the success of U.N. hosted indirect peace talks in Geneva, blaming the “criminal regime” led by Syrian President Bashar Assad and its ally Russia, which he says is “always trying to stand by the side of the criminals.”
He also says the opposition would never take part in a national unity government with the “shabiha,” an Arabic term that means government thugs.
The opposition had said that it would not participate in the talks without a complete lifting of government sieges on rebel-held areas, and an end to the bombardment of civilians.
A member of the Syrian opposition’s negotiating team in Geneva says the government’s decision to allow aid into a besieged rebel-held suburb of the capital, Damascus, is a small but positive step.
Basma Kodmani, who is in Geneva to take part in U.N.-sponsored indirect negotiations with the government, says the amount of supplies allowed “is way below what we are hoping to see happen.”
Kodmani describes the attack on Aleppo as a “horrible development.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says that Russia sees no reason to stop its airstrikes in Syria.
Damascus-based spokesman for the International Committee for the Red Cross says an aid convoy is on its way to the besieged rebel-held town of Moadamiyeh, southwest of the Syrian capital.
Pawel Krzysiek tells The Associated Press that 12 trucks carrying food, medicine and medical equipment are expected to be distributed to residents of thThe aid delivery appears to be an attempt toward a goodwill gesture after U.N.-mediated indirect peace talks got off to a rocky start in Geneva this week.
The Syrian opposition has dismissed the deliveries as too small and demanded an end to the bombardment of civilians in order for the Geneva talks to go forward.