Syria's chief negotiator said on Saturday that the government delegation focused on counter extremism during the 10-day talks in Geneva. In his first remarks since talks ended on Friday, Syria's ambassador to the U.N. Bashar al-Ja'afari said the key achievement that has been secured during the fourth round of the Syrian talks in the Swiss city is the agreement on an agenda of four main points

Speaking in a press conference on Saturday after the fourth round of the Syrian-Syrian dialogue in Geneva wrapped up, Jaafari said the fourth point, which is that of terrorism, was added to the three other points of governance, the constitution and the elections. The terrorism point, said Jaafari, was included in the agenda “upon our request with the exception of the Riyadh group.”

“We have been able to impose a rational and reasonable agenda that serves the high interest of the Syrian people,” added Jaafari, noting that the topic that was highly focused on is that of fighting terrorism.

“We touched upon the other points in passing, except the issue of the elections, which we didn’t deal with at all,” he said, pointing out that there was no in-depth discussion of the agenda, but there was only agreement on it.

He referred to the paper of “the basic principles for the political solution to the crisis in Syria” which the Syrian government delegation handed over to the UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura at the previous session of talks.

A non-paper was later presented by de Mistura “which is based on the paper we presented,” said Jaafari, adding that “the non-paper will be discussed in light of our amendments.”
On the other hand, Jaafari said the Syrian government delegation will participate in new round of Astana talks with armed opposition in mid-March.

Source: Ahram online