Syria Talks End in Recriminations

The Syrian government and opposition have traded insults after a week-long peace conference in Geneva ended with no firm agreement.

Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said the opposition were immature, while the opposition’s Louay Safi said the regime had no desire to stop the bloodshed.

However, UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said he had seen some “common ground”, and scheduled more talks for 10 February.

The opposition has agreed to take part, but Mr Muallem refused to commit.

“We represent the concerns and interests of our people. If we find that [another meeting] is their demand, then we will come back,” he told reporters.

Mr Safi said the opposition would not sit in talks “endlessly”, and urged the government to “talk seriously about transferring power”.

The two sides discussed humanitarian issues and possible ways to end the violence and made some agreements on access for humanitarian aid in some parts of the country.

More than 100,000 people have died in Syria since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011.

BBC

Posted by Editor on January 31, 2014. Filed under WORLD. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry