United Nations Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura has said that the latest
round of the intra-Syrian talks ended with ‘incremental progress’.
"We made, as we were expecting and hoping, incremental progress. No
breakthrough, no breakdown, no one walking out, incremental progress,”
he told reporters on Saturday following the conclusion of the 10-15 July
round of the UN-facilitated talks aimed at ending six years of war in
the Middle East country.
Referring to a technical consultative mechanism agreed on in the
previous round, he said that "in addition to this technical agreement,
there has been a generous effort among them (the opposition) to build something they did not have before, trust, mutual trust.”
"I would not have imagined two months ago that they would have been
sitting in such an intensive and constructive way together in
confidence,” the envoy said.
He said he intends to reconvene the intra-Syrian talks in early September.
"I have asked the parties to be ready to offer clear, substantive
positions on issues across all four baskets, and we hope that we will
be at least pushing them to sit in the same room.”
The ‘four baskets’ are: a credible non-sectarian transitional
government; a future constitution; early and free parliamentary
elections within 18 months; and a united war against terrorism within
Syria.