GENEVA: The UN envoy for Syria is “ready to engage” with President Bashar Assad’s representatives as peace talks are set to resume in Geneva, but they have not shown up yet.
UN spokeswoman Alessandra Vellucci said the eighth round of peace talks under special envoy Staffan de Mistura was set to restart Tuesday after a weekend break.
She said: “The delegation of the government has been invited back in Geneva as of today.”
Syria’s ambassador to Geneva, Hussam Edin Aala, told The Associated Press that Damascus was “studying” the invitation.
The head of Syria’s regime delegation has blasted the opposition for a communique in which it stated its ultimate goal was to remove Assad from power. Bashar Jaafari said on Friday his team was leaving Geneva for the weekend and that Syria would decide whether it would return to the talks.
Jaafari warned then that there could be no progress in the talks as long as the opposition insisted on what he described as a “provocative and irresponsible” position.
Meanwhile, Syrian state media and an opposition monitoring group said an explosion has ripped through a van near the central city of Homs, killing at least eight people.
Daesh claimed Tuesday’s attack in Akarma, a regime stronghold south of Homs.
Daesh said it targeted a bus carrying Syrian soldiers, but the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said those killed were civilians, including six women.
Syrian state TV has aired images of the van’s charred body, as well as damaged vehicles nearby. State news agency SANA says eight people were killed and 18 wounded.
Separately, Syria’s state news agency said Syrian air defense has shot down three Israeli missiles that were targeting a military post near Damascus.
SANA said the attack occurred early on Tuesday but has not said whether there were casualties.
UN ‘ready to engage’ with Assad in Geneva talks; Daesh bomb kills 8 in Homs
UN ‘ready to engage’ with Assad in Geneva talks; Daesh bomb kills 8 in Homs
US plans meeting for Gaza ‘Board of Peace’ in Washington on Feb 19, Axios reports
- The Axios report cited a US official and diplomats from four countries that are on the board
- The plans for the meeting, which would also be a fundraising conference for Gaza reconstruction, are in early stages and could still change, Axios reported
WASHINGTON: The White House is planning the first leaders meeting for President Donald Trump’s so-called “Board of Peace” in relation to Gaza on February 19, Axios reported on Friday, citing a US official and diplomats from four countries that are on the board.
The plans for the meeting, which would also be a fundraising conference for Gaza reconstruction, are in early stages and could still change, Axios reported.
The meeting is planned to be held at the US Institute of Peace in Washington, the report added, noting that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to meet Trump at the White House on February 18, a day before the planned meeting.
The White House and the US State Department did not respond to requests for comment.
In late January, Trump launched the board that he will chair and which he says will aim to resolve global conflicts, leading to many experts being concerned that such a board could undermine the United Nations.
Governments around the world have reacted cautiously to Trump’s invitation to join that initiative. While some of Washington’s Middle Eastern allies have joined, many of its traditional Western allies have thus far stayed away.
A UN Security Council resolution, adopted in mid-November, authorized the board and countries working with it to establish an international stabilization force in Gaza, where a fragile ceasefire began in October under a Trump plan on which Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas signed off.
Under Trump’s Gaza plan revealed late last year, the board was meant to supervise Gaza’s temporary governance. Trump thereafter said it would be expanded to tackle global conflicts.
Many rights experts say that Trump overseeing a board to supervise a foreign territory’s affairs resembled a colonial structure and have criticized the board for not including a Palestinian.The fragile ceasefire in Gaza has been repeatedly violated, with over 550 Palestinians and four Israeli soldiers reported killed since the truce began in October. Israel’s assault on Gaza since late 2023 has killed over 71,000 Palestinians, caused a hunger crisis and internally displaced
Gaza’s entire population.
Multiple rights experts, scholars and a UN inquiry say it amounts to genocide. Israel calls its actions self-defense after Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people and took over 250 hostages in a late 2023 attack.
