SECOND ROUND OF GENEVA II TALKS EXTEND INTO SATURDAY

Geneva, 15 Rabi’ul Akhir 1435/15 February 2014 (MINA) – The second round of Syria peace talks will extend into the sixth day on Saturday, an U.N. official said on Friday night.

The U.N.-Arab League Special Envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi will meet with the delegates of Syrian government and the opposition on Saturday morning, Xinhua quoted Corinne Momal-Vanian, spokesperson with the U.N. Office at Geneva (U.N.OG), as saying.

After the first round of Geneva II negotiations between the delegations of Syrian government and the opposition mediated by Mr. Brahimi adjourned 10 days ago without concrete results achieved, the second round resumed here on Monday morning and was originally expected to end Friday.

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The current negotiations stuck in setting the agenda of discussions, witnessing the two sides not budging an inch from their positions, The Hindu quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

The government side insisted to take stopping violence and terrorism as top priority, while the opposition focused on the establishment of a transitional governing body with full executives and without the presence of President Bashar al-Assad.

Delegates of both the sides admitted this afternoon that this round of Geneva II conference failed to achieve any progress and traded blames for the gridlock.

Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Meqdad said that this round “did not make any progress”, while Louay al-Safi, spokesperson of the opposition delegation noted that the talks “reached an impasse”.

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Keywords: Syria civil war, Syria crisis, Syria peace talks, Geneva peace talks, Syria transitional government, Homs humanitarian crisis, Faisal Meqdad.

(T/P09/E01).

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA).