GENEVA (AP) – The U.N. special envoy to Syria said Thursday that the peace talks he plans to launch in Geneva “in the next few days” are an opportunity not be missed, urging Syrians to step up to the occasion to end their country’s devastating civil war even as the main Syrian opposition group continued to delay its departure.
Speaking in a recorded message to the Syrian people on the eve of the talks, he said the United Nations “will never abandon” them and urged every Syrian to raise their voice and tell delegations coming to Geneva to compromise for the sake of peace.
“You have seen enough conferences – two of them already have taken place. This one cannot fail,” he said.
Peace talks are scheduled to begin on Friday, but are now likely to be delayed due to ongoing disputes over which opposition parties will attend. And the main Syrian opposition group said it was still waiting for an official response from the United Nations about a list of concerns.
The Saudi-backed opposition bloc known as the Higher Negotiating Committee, which will be the main bloc in the talks, says that before it participates in the Geneva talks the government should stop bombardments and allow humanitarian access to besieged rebel-held areas according to U.N. Security Council Resolutions.