De Mistura: Fifth round of Syrian talks in Geneva likely to take place in March
The fourth round of UN-backed intra-Syrian talks between the government and opposition factions kicked off in Geneva last week and concluded on Friday, Sputnik reported.
“On the basis of the indications that I will be getting both from the Secretary General [UN] and the Security Council, I am planning to invite the Syrian invitees back here in March for a fifth round,” De Mistura said at a press briefing.
In this round of talks, de Mistura said, the participants agreed to discuss at settlement negotiations all four "baskets" of topical issues for crisis resolution — governance, constitution, elections and counterterrorism — in parallel.
"We have a clear methodology to proceed and we have agreed on that within the intra-Syrian talks process the baskets will be addressed in a parallel way," de Mistura told reporters.
He added he had no plans to invite new participants to a fresh round of Syria proximity talks in Geneva in March.
"My inclination is not to invite new groups in order to make my job more complicated, but actually to stimulate those who would like to be part of it to come into one common umbrella," de Mistura said at a news briefing following the closure of the fourth round of intra-Syrian talks in Geneva.
--
Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz