Brahimi: Second round of Geneva II talks on Syria makes little progress so far

UN-Arab League Special Envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi Tuesday said that little progress has been achieved since the start of the second round of Syria peace talks resumed one day earlier. After today's meetings, which was adjourned at noon after the envoy met with the two sides "simultaneously" this morning, Brahimi told a press conference that the negotiations were as "laborious" as the first round did. "We are not making much progress. We will do our very best to make this process take off," said Brahimi, appealing to speed up actions to make this process a reality and help lift Syria out of the mire. The mediator stressed that to push forward the process requires both the cooperation from the two warring sides and the supports from outside. As for the UN-Russia-U.S. meeting scheduled to be held on Friday, Brahimi said that it is a "consultative" and "routine" meeting between himself, Russia and the United States, the two initiating sides for the Geneva II conference on Syria. But Brahimi did not reveal the agenda or details of the upcoming trilateral meeting. After the first round of Geneva II negotiations between the warring sides mediated by Brahimi adjourned some ten days ago without concrete results achieved, the second round resumed here on Monday morning but saw little rift healed so far. The two sides did not budge from their main positions, with the government side insisting to take stopping violence and terrorism as top priority, while the opposition focusing on the establishment of a transitional governing body. In an effort to solve the sticking point, Brahimi noted that he suggested the two sides in a memorandum sent by himself to them in advance of this fresh round of talks to discuss the two issues in parallel, saying that "they are both important matters".