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De Mistura reports some progress at pan-Syrian talks but says no breakthrough

According to De Mistura, the consultative technical mechanism for discussions at the level of experts that had been set up previously proved its efficiency at this round of negotiations

GENEVA, July 15. /TASS/. Parties to the pan-Syrian talks, a new round of which took place in Geneva from July 10 through to July 14, managed to make definite progress but still there was no breakthrough, Staffan de Mistura, a special envoy of the UN Secretary General for Syria told the final news conference.

He said the ending of the talks was neither a breakthrough nor a flop.

According to De Mistura, the consultative technical mechanism for discussions at the level of experts that had been set up previously proved its efficiency at this round of negotiations.

In the light of it, he gave an encouraging assessment to the consultations held on the eve of Geneva 7 in Switzerland, as representatives of the Syrian opposition were present there.

In part, the opposition negotiators representing three ‘platforms’ - the Cairo, Moscow and Riyadh, or the so-called determined the spheres of a common approach on the issue of elections in Syria.

Staffan de Mistura said he hopes the Syrian government and representatives of the opposition will hold direct talk in the next round of pan-Syrian talks in Geneva.

He also said that, prior to the talks, the sides were expected to do meaningful work on the four 'baskets' the Constitution, elections, administration, and struggle with terrorism.

De Mistura said he would like to see the government and the opposition sit at a conference table in the same room.

He said a moment had come when it was possible to motivate all the parties to taking seats at a table in the same room and to begin talks in earnest.

De Mistura stressed the importance of helping the opposition to launch closer cooperation with each other, adding that the mechanism of technical consultations was very efficacious for the purpose in terms of laying the groundwork for direct talks.

He said the opposition factions were clearly developing trust in one another - something that was not seen as fairly recently as two months ago.