GENEVA: More than a week of UN-sponsored peace talks ended in Geneva on Friday, the main opposition group said, calling the results “more positive” than previous rounds.
“We are closing this round without (a) clear result ... but I can say this time was more positive,” Nasr Al-Hariri, the chief negotiator of the High Negotiating Committee (HNC), told reporters.
“It was the first time we discussed in an acceptable depth the issues of the future of Syria and political transition,” he said after the talks, the fourth mediated by UN envoy Staffan de Mistura.
De Mistura handed all the delegations a paper with 12 principles that would be the basis for a second round of negotiations, said the head of the “Moscow Platform” political grouping at the talks.
Hamzi Menzer cited de Mistura, who gave the group a copy of the one-page document, as saying that the Geneva process would resume in the coming weeks.
The Syrian opposition provisionally accepted the 12 principles, chief negotiator Nasr Al-Hariri said.
The general principles on the future of Syria were derived from points set out by de Mistura last year, Hariri told reporters.
He said the round had ended without clear results but for the first time issues related to political transition had been discussed in acceptable depth.
His rival, Syrian regime negotiator Bashar Al-Jaafari, left the talks without commenting.
De Mistura said he plans to invite negotiators back to Geneva for another round of talks later this month, at the end of the latest discussions.
“I am planning to invite the Syrian parties back here in March for a fifth round.”
The talks, he said, had produced a “clear agenda” for the war-scarred country.
Meanwhile, the Russian military said its officers planned and directed the Syrian operation to recapture Palmyra.
Col. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi of the military’s General Staff said Friday Russian warplanes and special forces played a “decisive role” in driving out the Daesh militants.
Syria’s military announced the previous night that its forces have fully recaptured Palmyra, the third time the town famed for its ancient Roman ruins has changed hands in one year. Rudskoi said the Russian military spared Palmyra’s heritage sites which Daesh had sought to destroy. Rudskoi said over 1,000 Daesh militants were killed in the fight for Palmyra. He said the top-of-the line Ka-52 helicopter gunships proved their efficiency in combat.
He said that Russian explosives experts would soon join the Syrian Army in clearing mines in Palmyra.
Syria peace talks head to Geneva 5
Syria peace talks head to Geneva 5
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Tunisian police arrest member of parliament who mocked president
- Ahmed Saidani mocked the president in a Facebook post, describing him as the “supreme commander of sewage and rainwater drainage”
TUNIS: Tunisian police arrested lawmaker Ahmed Saidani on Wednesday, two of his colleagues said, in what appeared to be part of an escalating crackdown on critics of President Kais Saied.
Saidani has recently become known for his fierce criticism of Saied. On Tuesday, he mocked the president in a Facebook post, describing him as the “supreme commander of sewage and rainwater drainage,” blasting what he said was the absence of any achievements by Saied.
Saidani was elected as a lawmaker at the end of 2022 in a parliamentary election with very low voter turnout, following Saied’s dissolution of the previous parliament and dismissal of the government in 2021.
Saied has since ruled by decree, moves the opposition has described as a coup.
Most opposition leaders, some journalists and critics of Saied, have been imprisoned since he seized control of most powers in 2021.
Activists and human rights groups say Saied has cemented his one-man rule and turned Tunisia into an “open-air prison” in an effort to suppress his opponents. Saied denies being a dictator, saying he is enforcing the law and seeking to “cleanse” the country.
Once a supporter of Saied’s policies against political opponents, Saidani has become a vocal critic in recent months, accusing the president of seeking to monopolize all decision-making while avoiding responsibility, leaving others to bear the blame for problems.
Last week, Saidani also mocked the president for “taking up the hobby of taking photos with the poor and destitute,” sarcastically adding that Saied not only has solutions for Tunisia but claims to have global approaches capable of saving humanity.
Under Tunisian law, lawmakers enjoy parliamentary immunity and cannot be arrested for carrying out their duties, although detention is allowed if they are caught committing a crime.
