GENEVA (Sputnik) – Earlier on Wednesday, UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura decided to postpone the intra-Syrian talks in Geneva until February 25, as many preparatory issues, including humanitarian aid access to besieged areas in Syria, remained unresolved.
"Unless there is the improvement of humanitarian conditions in accordance with the UN resolution 2254, we are not talking about our participation [in the new series of the talks scheduled for February 25]," Mohamed Alloush, a representative of Jaish al-Islam said.
The head of the Syrian opposition's High Negotiations Committee, Riyad Hijab, said on Wednesday that the Riyadh-formed delegation at intra-Syrian talks in Geneva would leave the negotiations on February 4 and would not return until there is "progress on the ground" in Syria.
Hijab called on the international community and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to increase efforts aimed at reaching a political settlement in the country.
Syria has been in a state of civil war since 2011, with the army loyal to President Bashar Assad fighting several opposition factions and militant organizations, including the Daesh, banned in Russia and a number of other countries. The Syrian government and the opposition have met several times during the course of the war for peace talks.
On Wednesday, Bashar Jaafari, the head of the Syrian government delegation to the Geneva peace talks, blamed the opposition representatives, the Turkish and the Saudis, for the pause in the talks, which started at the end of January.
