UN-brokered talks continued in Geneva on Wednesday with no sign of Syrian president Bashar Al Assad’s delegation returning to the negotiating table after walking out last week.
The peace talks, which began on Tuesday last week and are set to continue until December 15, have so far made little progress. The government delegation left Geneva on Saturday, blaming opposition demands that Mr Al Assad should play no role in any interim post-war government.
This round of UN-brokered talks, the eighth, is supposed to focus on the first so-called "basket" of issues up for negotiation, including what a post-war political transition will look like and the writing of a new constitution. The second basket, which includes post-war elections, is supposed to be discussed at a ninth round of talks.
“We have had our fifth session of this round," Yahya Aridi, the opposition delegation’s spokesperson, said on Wednesday after meeting with UN officials for a second day in a row without government representatives present. "We have discussed the first 'basket' on political transition, how relations should be in the institutions. This is in the context of the constitution and electoral processes.”
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He said the opposition's continuing discussions with the UN showed their "seriousness about bringing peace to Syria and the irresponsibility of the other side towards Syria".
On Tuesday, the opposition called on the United Nations and allies of Mr Al Assad to halt a bombing campaign that has escalated in recent weeks against Eastern Ghouta, a besieged rebel-held suburb of eastern Damascus.
"The bloody campaign on Ghouta confirms yet again that the regime is not in a state of negotiation and that they are not concerned in having any political solution. On the contrary, they are willing to undermine any track that might lead to a political solution," Mr Aridi said.
Meanwhile, France on Wednesday accused the Syrian government of obstructing the talks with its refusal to return to the Swiss city and called on Assad ally Russia to not shirk its responsibility in getting Damascus to the negotiating table.
The French foreign ministry's deputy spokesman, Alexandre Georgini, said: "We condemn the absence of the delegation of the regime and its refusal to engage in good faith in the negotiations to achieve a political solution.”
"This refusal highlights the obstruction strategy of the political process carried out by the Damascus regime, which is responsible for the absence of progress in the negotiations," he added.
Mr Georgini stressed that Russia, one of Mr Al Assad’s main backers, needed to assume its responsibilities so that the Syrian government finally entered the negotiations.
On Friday, Bashar Al Jaafari, the chief negotiator for the regime, declared that "this round of talks is finished for us", saying his team would fly back home and that "Damascus will decide" whether they would return to the UN-backed talks.
Syria's opposition has insisted that Mr Al Assad must step down, but his negotiators have refused to discuss the issue and the regime's recent successes on the battlefield have strengthened his hand.
On the issue of Mr Al Assad stepping down, the UN's chief mediator, Staffan de Mistura, said: "I want to believe that that issue should come up from the Syrians through UN-supervised elections."
Last week, Mr de Mistura shuttled between the opposition and government negotiating teams, who were installed in separate rooms off the same corridor. Despite this, he said that face-to-face contact was less important than the substance of talks, and that the atmosphere was "professional and serious" on both sides.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
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- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
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- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Day 1, Abu Dhabi Test: At a glance
Moment of the day Dimuth Karunaratne had batted with plenty of pluck, and no little skill, in getting to within seven runs of a first-day century. Then, while he ran what he thought was a comfortable single to mid-on, his batting partner Dinesh Chandimal opted to stay at home. The opener was run out by the length of the pitch.
Stat of the day - 1 One six was hit on Day 1. The boundary was only breached 18 times in total over the course of the 90 overs. When it did arrive, the lone six was a thing of beauty, as Niroshan Dickwella effortlessly clipped Mohammed Amir over the square-leg boundary.
The verdict Three wickets down at lunch, on a featherbed wicket having won the toss, and Sri Lanka’s fragile confidence must have been waning. Then Karunaratne and Chandimal's alliance of precisely 100 gave them a foothold in the match. Dickwella’s free-spirited strokeplay meant the Sri Lankans were handily placed at 227 for four at the close.
Charlotte Gainsbourg
Rest
(Because Music)
The Baghdad Clock
Shahad Al Rawi, Oneworld
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
Ronaldo's record at Man Utd
Seasons 2003/04 - 2008/09
Appearances 230
Goals 115
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Key features of new policy
Pupils to learn coding and other vocational skills from Grade 6
Exams to test critical thinking and application of knowledge
A new National Assessment Centre, PARAKH (Performance, Assessment, Review and Analysis for Holistic Development) will form the standard for schools
Schools to implement online system to encouraging transparency and accountability
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League, last-16. first leg
Atletico Madrid v Juventus, midnight (Thursday), BeIN Sports
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yallacompare profile
Date of launch: 2014
Founder: Jon Richards, founder and chief executive; Samer Chebab, co-founder and chief operating officer, and Jonathan Rawlings, co-founder and chief financial officer
Based: Media City, Dubai
Sector: Financial services
Size: 120 employees
Investors: 2014: $500,000 in a seed round led by Mulverhill Associates; 2015: $3m in Series A funding led by STC Ventures (managed by Iris Capital), Wamda and Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority; 2019: $8m in Series B funding with the same investors as Series A along with Precinct Partners, Saned and Argo Ventures (the VC arm of multinational insurer Argo Group)
Did you know?
Brunch has been around, is some form or another, for more than a century. The word was first mentioned in print in an 1895 edition of Hunter’s Weekly, after making the rounds among university students in Britain. The article, entitled Brunch: A Plea, argued the case for a later, more sociable weekend meal. “By eliminating the need to get up early on Sunday, brunch would make life brighter for Saturday night carousers. It would promote human happiness in other ways as well,” the piece read. “It is talk-compelling. It puts you in a good temper, it makes you satisfied with yourself and your fellow beings, it sweeps away the worries and cobwebs of the week.” More than 100 years later, author Guy Beringer’s words still ring true, especially in the UAE, where brunches are often used to mark special, sociable occasions.
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