GENEVA, December 1. /TASS/. Participants of the intra-Syrian talks currently under way in Geneva should not make any preconditions, UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura told reporters on Thursday.
"We are asking and I am insisting - and so far it has been respected - no preconditions about anything that we will be discussing. Of course, nothing is agreed until everything is agreed, everybody knows that," he said.
According to the UN mediator, the talks focus primarily on an informal document, headlined "12 intra-Syrian essential principles," which was drafted in spring 2016 and updated this March. The document lays down basic principles, such as reaffirming the territorial integrity of Syria, the creation of a democratic state and the preservation of state institutions, such as armed forces and security services.
"Apart from the 12 principles, we’ve been and we intend to discuss and raise with both sides all the four baskets, but in particular the two which we have been referred to <…> - constitutional process and UN-supervised elections," de Mistura said.
The eighth round of intra-Syrian talks in Geneva began on November 28, with the participation of delegations from the Syrian government and the opposition.