22 February 2017•Update: 23 February 2017
By Fatih Erel
GENEVA
UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said he is not expecting a breakthrough at Syria peace talks in Geneva this week.
"l am not expecting a breakthrough," de Mistura told a press conference in Geneva on the eve of new talks between Syrian regime and opposition aimed at ending the six-year conflict.
The envoy also said he will refuse any preconditions ahead of the talks, which he said would focus on new elections, a new constitution and governance in Syria.
De Mistura said Russia asked the Syrian government to halt its bombings during the talks.
"Today, the Russian Federation did announce they have formally requested the government of Syria to silence their skies during the intra Syria talks," de Mistura said.
This week will be the first time the Syrian regime and opposition delegations have returned to Geneva since talks were suspended in April 2016.
Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the regime of Bashar al-Assad cracked down on pro-democracy protests – which erupted as part of the Arab Spring uprisings – with unexpected ferocity.
Since then, more than a quarter of a million people have been killed and more than 10 million displaced across the war-torn country, according to the UN, but the Syrian Center for Policy Research puts the death toll at more than 470,000.
