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No meetings with Syrian delegations

GENEVA, February 13. /ITAR-TASS/. No meetings with the participation of Syria’s delegations have been planned, spokeswoman of the UN’s European headquarters in Switzerland Corinne Momal-Vanian told Itar-Tass.

“A tripartite meeting with the participation of Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov, US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman and UN/LAS Special Envoy for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi is planned to be held,” the spokeswoman said.

A news briefing will start at 18:00 Moscow time, she said.

The second round of inter-Syrian talks started Monday, February 10. On the first day the delegations held separate consultations with Brahimi. On Tuesday and Wednesday the delegations talked in one room. These talks did not last long and yielded no results.

The major disagreements are that the opposition wants to create a transition government first while Damascus seeks to fight terrorism and cease violence. No party intends to cede. Thus, from the end of January the delegations were unable to coordinate even the agenda.

Some people say the initiators of the forum - Russia and the United States - should put pressure on the negotiators and make them to take a constructive position. Moscow says it is sure that both topics should be discussed. “Both issues are equally important. I believe that during the talks, the parties will be able to resolve them,” Gatilov said in Geneva on February 12.

Earlier, a well-informed source told Itar-Tass that Gatilov was expected to have a meeting with head of the Syrian National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces Ahmed al-Jarba late in the evening.

However, the opposition’s source said al-Jarba had not arrived in Geneva. “Ahmed al-Jarba has not arrived yet. Thus, no meeting can be held now,” the source told Itar-Tass.