BEIRUT, March 12, (APP/AFP): The UN envoy for Syria called Friday for
elections in the war-ravaged country in 18 months, as the opposition announced it will attend fresh peace talks next week.
But in a worrying development ahead of the negotiations, government
raids were reported to have killed seven civilians in Syria’s second city, Aleppo, despite a ceasefire.
The truce has prompted a nearly two-week lull in fighting between the
Russian-backed regime and non-jihadist rebels since coming into force on
February 27.
World powers are counting on the ceasefire to hold for a new round of
indirect negotiations between the opposition and the government due to start on March 14 in Geneva.
The US State Department said Friday that the ceasefire is “largely
holding,” albeit with continued violations that include government attacks on civilians and opposition forces.
“Despite the reduction in violence nationwide, we remain deeply
concerned by continued specific violations to the cessation of hostilities, including attacks on civilians and opposition forces by the regime and its supporters,” spokesman John Kirby said.
The Riyadh-based High Negotiations Committee, the main Syrian
opposition grouping, agreed on Friday to attend the UN-backed talks.
The HNC said its delegation would focus on creating a “transitional
governance body with full executive powers”.
It insisted President Bashar al-Assad “will have no place” in a
future government.
A plan agreed by world powers last year called for six months of
negotiations followed by a transitional government, a new constitution and
elections within 18 months.
Last month Assad’s regime announced it would hold parliamentary elections on April 13 instead, drawing criticism.
UN envoy Staffan de Mistura has said “substantive” talks will begin Monday in Geneva and last no longer than 10 days.
The first day of negotiations would start the countdown to both
presidential and parliamentary elections in Syria under UN observation, he said.
“New elections… should be held 18 months from the start of talks, that is from March 14,” de Mistura told Russia’s RIA Novosti state news agency, in comments translated into Russian.
That would mean elections around mid-September 2017.