A Syrian government envoy and a rebel leader traded barbs as talks between the Middle East nation’s warring factions got under way in Kazakhstan yesterday, the first face-to-face meeting between the Damascus government and rebel factions fighting to overthrow it.
The gathering in Astana, the Kazakh capital, is also the start of a new effort to end six years of carnage that has killed hundreds of thousands, displaced half of Syria’s population and sent millions of refugees flooding into neighboring nations and Europe.
UN envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura is participating in the talks, which if successful, are expected to be followed by more political talks in Geneva, Switzerland, next month.
Photo: EPA
The new US administration is not directly involved because of the “immediate demands of the transition,” the US Department of State said on Saturday, but Washington is represented by the US Ambassador to Kazakhstan George Krol, who attended the opening session.
After a one-hour closed session during which De Mistura mediated, the Damascus envoy came out to denounce a speech delivered by the head of the rebel factions attending the gathering as “provocative” and “insolent.”
Syrian Ambassador to the UN Bashar Ja’afari said rebel leader Mohammad Alloush’s speech in Astana did not rise to the level of the gathering of diplomats attending the conference.
Ja’afari repeatedly referred to the rebel delegation as representatives of “terrorist armed groups” and said that the final agenda for the talks had not been settled.
“These provocative and belittling acts characterized the words and action of the armed terrorist groups meant to provoke the attendees,” he said, adding that Alloush’s opening speech was unsuitable.
Ja’afari was referring to Alloush’s speech in which he described Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government as “terrorist” and called for placing armed groups fighting alongside the Syrian army, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah group, on a global list of terrorist organizations.
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