GENEVA (Sputnik) – On Friday, Jaafari will meet with UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, who has already held meetings in the past two days with the Syrian opposition's High Negotiations Committee (HNC) delegation, as well as the Moscow-Cairo opposition group.
A new round of intra-Syrian talks started in Geneva on Wednesday. The previous round of Syrian settlement talks wrapped up on March 24 after 10 days of intense discussions. The round ended in delegates submitting their proposals on how to settle the five-year conflict in Syria. De Mistura then summarized the 12 basic points of convergence between the parties in a final paper that was sent to delegations for their approval.
Syrian Kurds did not receive an official invitation either to the current or previous rounds of Geneva talks.
Syria has been in a state of civil war since 2011, with government forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad fighting several opposition factions and militant groups. A US-Russia-brokered ceasefire came into force across Syria on February 27. It was supported by Damascus, as well as by dozens of opposition groups on the ground.
Syria held parliamentary elections on Wednesday, the same day a new round of UN-mediated talks between government and opposition delegates began in Geneva.
