UN: Syria peace talks delayed by two days

GENEVA/BERLIN/BEIRUT: Peace talks aimed at ending the conflict in Syria will resume in Geneva on March 9, UN envoy Staffan de Mistura’s office said Tuesday, announcing a two-day postponement.

“Intra-Syrian peace talks will resume in the afternoon of 9 March,” de Mistura’s office said in a statement.“The 7th of March 2016 was initially set as the target date for the resumption of peace talks,” but a short delay was needed “to allow adequate time to address logistical and practical matters.”
“Mr. de Mistura looks forward to Syrian participants’ engagement in serious discussions,” the statement added. A first round of talks which began early last month was cut short amid intensifying Russian airstrikes in Syria in support of President Bashar Assad’s forces.
Warring parties, excluding the Daesh group and Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front, have agreed to a truce brokered by the US and Russia, which the UN has said is broadly holding despite isolated incidents of fighting. The UN has said an extended commitment to the cease-fire by all sides would raise hope of the talks succeeding, after repeated diplomatic efforts to end the conflict have failed.
Meanwhile, the Syrian opposition on Tuesday has accused the Assad government of breaching the fragile truce by repeatedly attacking its positions.
The “moderate” opposition says that because some of their fighters are located in areas alongside Nusra, they fear being targeted too.
International observers have acknowledged violations of the agreement while stressing that the level of violence has decreased considerably.
The Russian Defense Ministry said it was refraining from striking areas in Syria where the “moderate opposition” was respecting the cease-fire agreement, Interfax news agency reported.
A total of 15 cease-fire violations have been registered in Syria in the past 24 hours, Interfax quoted the Russian military as saying. Since the start of the cease-fire, aid workers on Monday made the first delivery of desperately needed assistance to rebel-held Moadamiyet Al-Sham, encircled by government forces.