ASSOCIATED PRESS ARABNEWS.COM
Published — Monday 27 January 2014

GENEVA: Syrians on opposite sides of their country’s civil war tried again Sunday to find common ground, with peace talks focusing on the release of prisoners and an aid convoy to a besieged city that once more came under mortar attacks from the government.

Once again the delegation for President Bashar Assad complained that the talks are avoiding the main issues and questioned their usefulness.

The proposed convoy of aid to Homs, Syria, which has been under government attack for more than a year, would provide a tangible success for a peace conference beset from the start by low expectations.

But the opposition accused the government of “stalling” and said no progress had been made yet.

Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN mediator acting as a buffer between the two sides, said the thorniest topic — a possible transitional government — would not come up until at least Monday.

He said late Saturday that the two sides would first try to come together over humanitarian aid and a possible prisoner exchange, describing a process of “half-steps.” “I think this belittles the importance of this conference and the goal that was drawn for it,” said Bouthaina Shaaban, an adviser to Assad.

Monzer Akbik, a spokesman for the Syrian National Coalition opposition group, said the Syrian government delegation has asked to refer back to Damascus before giving its final answer on a Homs truce later Sunday. “This is a stalling technique… If there are no aid convoys entering Homs, then we consider that the other party is not serious about this process,” Akbik told reporters in Geneva, adding that the opposition is nevertheless determined to stay for the political talks set to begin Monday.

SOURCE: ARABNEWS.COM