Syria talks in Geneva end with 'serious challenges'

GENEVA The UN’s Syria envoy said the Geneva V peace talks ended Friday with "serious challenges" to reaching a peace deal between the warring sides, while the sides called each other "terrorists." "No one can deny there are serious challenges that l am not seeing immediately [to] this developing into a peace agreement, no doubt about that. There are really challenges on the ground, we are seeing that in front of our eyes. But, let's be frank, no one walked out in spite of that," the UN’s Staffan de Mistura told a press conference at the UN Office at Geneva at the end of the latest round of talks. He added said he would consult with the secretary-general and Security Council in New York next week on the timing of the next round. After the final session of the talks, the head of the regime and opposition delegations also insulted each other by calling the other side "terrorists". In the talks, de Mistura said, "We were mostly talking about substance." De Mistura last Sunday gave a document with four agenda baskets to all parties in the peace talks to describe the general terms of governance and political transition, constitution, elections, and counterterrorism. 'Regime has taken no steps' The main opposition group at the talks met Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov on Wednesday. Speaking afterwards, Salim al-Muslat, a spokesman for the Syrian High Negotiations Committee (HNC), told reporters: "The discussion had two aspects: political and humanitarian. We talked about our concerns to push this process forward." "We informed the deputy foreign minister that our delegation is here to engage completely and seriously in the political talks. We have serious steps forward based on the agenda presented by de Mistura," Muslat said. "However, the other party has taken no steps in these regards,” he added, claiming the Bashar al-Assad regime team only wanted to discuss terrorism. Early May was identified as a time to hold another round of Kazakhstan-based talks, Muslat said. After the meeting, Gatilov told reporters: "l heard from them that the HNC delegation would be in favor of discussing four agenda items presented by de Mistura." This current round of talks began on March 23 and ended on Friday. The Syrian regime delegation was headed by Bashar al-Ja’aafari, while the main opposition was led by the HNC’s Nasr Hariri. Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests -- which erupted as part of the Arab Spring uprisings -- with unexpected ferocity. Since then, more than a quarter-million people have been killed and more than 10 million displaced across the war-battered country, according to the United Nations. The Syrian Center for Policy Research, however, put the death toll from the six-year conflict at more than 470,000 people.