WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The United States is calling on both the Syrian government and the opposition to participate in the Geneva peace talks without preconditions, US State Department spokesman John Kirby said during a press briefing.
"We encourage the regime and the HNC [Syrian opposition's High Negotiations Committee] to attend Geneva because it is an opportunity to test the regime’s intentions and propose serious practical ways to implement a ceasefire and these are the confidence building measures," Kirby said Friday.
The spokesman continued, "We believe the opposition should attend the Geneva negotiations without preconditions."
Earlier on Friday, the UN announced that the intra-Syrian talks had started with a meeting between UN Special Envoy de Mistura and the Syrian government delegation headed by the country's ambassador to the UN, Bashar Jaafari.
HNC reportedly announced earlier on Friday its decision to attend the Geneva talks after receiving US and UN guarantees.
In December, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution on settling the Syrian conflict, which reaffirmed the goals of the Vienna agreements to bring the entire spectrum of political groups in the crisis-torn country to the negotiating table and stated that the next round of the talks would take place in January, 2016.
