De Mistura Rules out Holding Direct Talks between Syrian Arab Republic Delegation and “Opposition”

GENEVA – The third session of talks held Thursday  between the Syrian Arab Republic delegation, led by Dr. Bashar al-Jaafari, and the UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura with the framework of the seventh round of the intra-Syrian dialogue, focused on the basket called fighting terrorism.

Technical meetings were also held between experts from the delegation of the Syrian Arab Republic and the delegation of de Mistura, SANA reported.

Earlier today, de Mistura ruled out holding direct talks between the Syrian Arab Republic delegation and the “opposition” during the seventh round of the intra-Syrian dialogue in Geneva.

 “We are pushing for holding direct talks but I do not expect direct talks and we are looking for common points between the delegations,” de Mistura said in a press statement to journalists.

On Wednesday, Mohannad Dlykan, the representative of the opposition “Moscow Platform” said in a statement after a meeting of the group’s delegation with de Mistura that setting up preconditions is unacceptable, pointing out that Moscow Platform does not want to discuss what is not included in the UN Security Council resolution no.2254.

He announced that Moscow Platform agreed to the paper presented by de Mistura.

In the same context, the head of the opposition “Cairo Platform” delegation Firas al-Khalidi announced on Wednesday that the platform agreed on the principles’ paper presented by de Mistura, pointing to the convergence of views and confidence-building that began to be established between the platforms of the opposition.

He pointed out that his platform seeks to reach to direct negotiations in order to start the political process, but this need to complete the procedural matters first.