Head of the Syrian Arab Republic delegation to Geneva Bashar al-Jaafari announced on Friday the end of the official meetings within the 6th round of the intra-Syrian dialogue held in the Swiss city with a final session of talks the delegation held with the UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura.
We have just concluded the last session with the UN Special Envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, within the framework of the current Geneva round, which we agreed to call it the 6th round of Geneva. For us, as the delegation of the Syrian Arab Republic, the official meetings with the Special Envoy has ended at this moment and de Mistura as the special envoy will follow his contacts and meetings but this is another matter,” al-Jaffari said in a press statement following the end of the session.
In this round, we discussed mainly one topic, which can be considered as the fruit that matured or resulted from this round. I mean expert meetings. One expert meeting was held yesterday between our experts and experts of the Special Envoy’s team and this is the only result that we came out with in this round,” he added.
In response to a question about the coincidence of the meeting with an American aggression and ISIL massacre against Syrians in addition to the ambition of achieving better results in this round, al-Jaafari said that the delegation discussed during today’s session the U.S. attack on one of the Syrian Arab Army’s military points on al-Tanf road in the Syrian Badia, which took place Thursday evening.
“Minutes ago, we talked extensively about the massacre committed by the US aggression on Thursday in my country .The important thing is that our political ambition is the highest in terms of concerns within all parties involved. Our ambition is supreme because we want to constantly focus on the fight against terrorism, “he said.
Al-Jaafari pointed out that terrorism, represented by terrorist groups and the terrorism committed by countries and governments against Syria which includes the US, French and British aggression whether against civil or military targets, as what happened in Manbaj city when the French bombed the city and killed 200 civilians or as in Raqqa when the US raided the Deaf and Dumb school and as happened in al-Tharda Mountain in Deir Ezzor or as happened yesterday also.
“At every meeting, we would like to remind the attendees that state terrorism is being practiced against our country,” he added.
On setting a time limit for expert meetings and whether it would continue beyond the Geneva meetings, al-Jaafari noted that he did not say that, but, he added “I said that in this round there was only one meeting at the expert level, which was yesterday’s meeting. I mean between our experts and the experts of the Special Envoy, but the agreement is that these technical meetings take place during the rounds and not between or after them.”
“This is absolutely false,” al-Jaafari said in response to a question about some statements about the fallacies and that the meetings were focused on the issue of political transition and the nature of the government.
He clarified that Astana agreement on the de-escalation zones is about specific areas and not the entire Syrian territory, noting that the mechanisms of implementing the agreement have not been set yet.
“You should take into consideration that the main focus of the talks is the delegation as a whole. The expert meetings are detailed in a whole scene and therefore the important thing is the delegation’s meeting. The meetings of the experts are purely technical in order to find common points between the points related to the constitutional process, which are included in the paper of basic principles, and our political talks at the level of the delegation as a whole because the meeting of experts will be of a partial nature to take place within the framework of the meetings of the whole delegation,” he explained.
About US allegations about Sednaya prison, al-Jaafari said that this kind of allegation is not new and in every round of talks whether in Astana or in Geneva, and even before that, even in the Security Council, a massacre was carried out, adding that “only the nuclear weapon is left to hit us and they no longer have dangerous toys, but to use the nuclear and accuse us of using it.”
“The purpose of this fabricated story by the US intelligence is to increase the pressure on us politically as a government and secondly to prepare for the visit of US President Donald Trump to Riyadh because he talks about the establishment of a new Arab Islamic NATO, which is a funny story, funded by Saudi regime and Gulf countries who are ready to spend billions of dollars on the fabrication of wars in the region besides the existing wars,” he pointed out.
“This story is part of the general view of the pressure exerted on the Syrian government. It is no coincidence that this type of allegation appeared on the first day of our arrival in Geneva because it was intended to defame and exert pressure on us politically and to help the other extremist parties who reject the political solution in the escalation during the Geneva round,” he said.
Asked whether any of the four baskets were discussed, al-Jaafari said “in four days we did not discuss any basket of four baskets and we only talk about the subject of expert meetings.”
The session of talks between the Syrian Arab Republic delegation and the UN Special Envoy for Syria was held earlier today at the headquarters of the United Nations in the Geneva.
Four sessions of talks were held between both sides over the past three days.
In a press conference following yesterday’s session, al-Jaafari said that the intensive consultations held between the UN Envoy and the Syrian Arab Republic delegation over the past two days resulted in reaching agreement to hold informal meetings between constitutional experts from both sides.
He added that the purpose of these meetings is to discuss the paper of basic principles, which includes in its articles appropriate points that serve as constitutional principles, referring to the basic principles paper which consists of 12 points where the elements related to the constitutional process will be dealt with.
Source: SANA
