UN’s troubled Syria peace talks restart in Geneva

UN-backed Syria peace talks resume in Geneva, with little hope of a breakthrough and the emboldened regime seen as unlikely to make concessions.

UN deputy special envoy Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy is meeting separately with government negotiators and the main opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC) at hotels in the Swiss city.

“We have started today preliminary talks,” Ramzy tells reporters after his meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s representatives. “We hope we will be starting substantive discussions tomorrow.”

Ramzy’s boss, UN mediator Staffan de Mistura, was wrapping up a diplomatic tour of the key powers shaping the conflict, which included trips to Moscow, Riyadh and Ankara. De Mistura is due back in Geneva on Thursday evening to take charge of the negotiations which have yielded little in four previous rounds.

— AFP