Syria players agree to talk
January 29, 2014
The announcement carried by Syrian state television on Wednesday appeared to be confirmed by a spokesman for the opposition delegation, the National Coalition, which is participating in tedious talks with the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad and other international players in Geneva.
"For the first time, now, we are talking about the transitional governing body," said Louay Safi (pictured), the opposition delegation's spokesperson.
The Syrian state TV announcement indicated the government's "full readiness" to discuss the plan, put forward by the international community and known as the Geneva communique, "paragraph by paragraph."
The Geneva communique was written in June of 2012 as a possible means of reaching a peaceful political solution to the civil war in Syria.
Members of the opposition and representatives for the government are attending a similar meeting this week in Geneva, attempting to break some of the gridlock that has plagued international negotiations on Syria for the duration of the three-year conflict.
Talks had been Syrian talks in deadlock over transitional governmentat a standstill for days#, until the two sides of the Syrian conflict agreed to meet on Wednesday.
"We will talk about the details in the coming days - the size of the [transitional] body, its duties, the length of its mandate," said Safi.
mz/kms (AFP, Reuters, dpa)