Geneva: The UN’s peace envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, on Tuesday announced the start of wide-ranging consultations in Geneva with regional and domestic players in the hope of reviving stalled dialogue on the conflict.
De Mistura said talks with the Syrian government and some 40 groups, including “political, military actors, women, civil society, victims, the diaspora”, would also rope in some 20 regional and international players, including Iran.
The consultations would be held on a one-to-one basis between the UN and the separate players.
He said though “low-key”, the talks would be “very serious” and could extend beyond a tentative end-June deadline.
Terror-listed entities like Daesh and Al Nusra have not been invited but groups in contact with them are on the list of participants.
Calling the Syrian conflict the “biggest humanitarian tragedy since the Second World War,” de Mistura said he would “leave no stone unturned” in his bid to try and end the fighting.
More than 220,000 people have been killed in Syria since March 2011, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor.
De Mistura, who was appointed UN envoy for Syria last July, warned the Security Council last week that prospects for a political transition were slim.
In January, he said conditions were not yet right to try to launch more talks after two rounds of negotiations in Switzerland failed.
