After a day of separate meetings with the Syrian government and opposition delegations, UN mediator Lakhdar Brahimi says both sides have agreed to meet in the same room on Saturday.
Mr Brahimi told journalists “We are going to meet tomorrow. I hope that will be a good beginning, and that we will continue until the end of next week.”
His upbeat prediction came after an apparently difficult day, during which the Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem had threatened to leave the peace talks in Geneva if no serious discussions had taken place by Saturday.
Mr Brahimi told journalists “We are going to meet tomorrow. I hope that will be a good beginning, and that we will continue until the end of next week.”
Syrian state television reported that Mr Moualem (pictured above) told Mr Brahimi of his intentions during an initial meeting lasting barely an hour on Friday morning. Mr Moualem was reported to have blamed the “the other side’s lack of seriousness or preparedness”.
While the state television broadcast said the meeting had a “postitive atmosphere”, today’s meeting remain a massive challenge to the diplomats charged with brokering a deal.
Earlier the opposition had warned that it would not meet face to face with the Syrian government delegation unless it endorsed a communique from the Geneva I talks in 2012, which called for a transitional governing body to be established in Syria.
Opposition delegate Haitham al-Maleh said “We have explicitly demanded a written commitment from the regime delegation to accept Geneva I. Otherwise there will be no direct negotiations.”
UN spokeswoman Alessandra Velluci told a news briefing in Geneva: “This process is being shaped at the moment. It has to take time for the preparations. There are no Syrian-Syrian talks at the moment.”
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