UN envoy in Syria to assure upcoming peace talks in Geneva

This undated photo posted on the Local Revolutionary Council in Madaya, which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, shows a starving boy in Madaya, Syria. The Syrian government has agreed to allow humanitarian assistance into three beleaguered villages following reports of malnutrition in the area, a U.N. official said Thursday.Two of the villages in question are the adjacent Shiite villages of Foua and Kfarya in the country’s north, which have been besieged by anti-government militants for more than a year. The third is the village of Madaya near the border with Lebanon, which has been under siege by government forces since early July. (Local Revolutionary Council in Madaya via AP) This undated photo posted on the Local Revolutionary Council in Madaya, which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, shows a starving boy in Madaya, Syria. The Syrian government has agreed to allow humanitarian assistance into three beleaguered villages following reports of malnutrition in the area, a U.N. official said Thursday.Two of the villages in question are the adjacent Shiite villages of Foua and Kfarya in the country’s north, which have been besieged by anti-government militants for more than a year. The third is the village of Madaya near the border with Lebanon, which has been under siege by government forces since early July. (Local Revolutionary Council in Madaya via AP)

By Associated Press January 8, 2016 4 min read

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) – As a Saudi-Iran crisis roils the Middle East, the U.N. special envoy to Syria arrived in Damascus on Friday to lay the groundwork and prepare the peace negotiations between President Bashar Assad’s government and its opponents due later this month in Geneva.

But Syrian opposition figures insist it’s impossible to talk peace when Syrian government forces are stepping up their attacks and laying siege to opposition-held areas that leave Syrians starving to death.

Staffan de Mistura’s visit comes as the Saudi-Iranian rift has raised concerns that the disagreements between Riyadh and Tehran – who support different sides in Syria’s civil war – could derail efforts to negotiate a peace process for Syria led by the U.N., the United States and Russia.

The U.N. is urging the sides in Syria’s five-year-conflict to the negotiating table on Jan. 25 in an effort to find a resolution for the conflict that has killed more than 250,000 people and displaced half the country’s population. Conferences in Geneva in 2014 failed to bring about a settlement, though this round is seen as particularly urgent after the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution last month endorsing a transitional plan for Syria.

Its passage was a rare show of unity among global powers, which have backed opposing sides of the conflict – Russia siding with Assad and the United States saying the Syrian leader should step down. The U.N. resolution made no mention of Assad’s fate after the transitional period.