Peace talks break up as Syrians
insist Assad must stay in power

The first meeting meant to discuss the contentious issue of a Syrian transitional government broke up less than an hour after it began after a tense session described by one delegate as “a dialogue of the deaf”.

The Syrian government has said it will not discuss replacing Bashar Assad, whose family has ruled since 1970.

The opposition insists he must step down in favour of a transitional governing body to lead the country until elections are held.

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The UN envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, managed to get both sides to sit in the same room over the weekend to discuss humanitarian aid to besieged areas of the besieged central city of Homs and a possible prisoner exchange, but the opposition said little progress had been achieved.

After three days of talks, a tentative agreement was reached about the evacuation of women and children trapped in Homs before aid convoys go in.

Yesterday, the two delegations were supposed to begin discussing Assad’s future.

As the meeting got under way, the government delegation put forward a paper focusing on the need to combat terrorism – the government regards the rebellion as a terrorist plot – and halt funding and shipments of weapons to rebels fighting to topple Assad.

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The opposition rejected the paper and insisted on talking about a transitional government as scheduled.

“At that point they (the government delegation) began to get even more confrontational and began to lecture in a very dictatorial manner,” Murhaf Joueijati, a member of the National Syrian Coalition opposition group said.

“We thought there was no point in continuing this since it was going to be a dialogue of the deaf,” he said.

Mr Brahimi broke up the meeting and is scheduled to meet both sides separately later.

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The inability of the two sides to discuss Assad’s future was expected. One of the key guiding principles for the talks in Geneva – which are aimed at stopping three years of bloodshed in Syria that has claimed more than 130,000 lives, and forced millions from their homes – calls for the creation of a transitional government that both sides accept.

“Today we will start talking about a new Syria, about transition from starvation to freedom, from torture to human rights and rule of law,” said an opposition spokesman Monzer Akbik.

But Syria has said a transitional government excluding Assad would cross “a red line”.

Regarding Homs, Mr Akbik said the women and children there should decide whether they want to leave or stay after getting aid.

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He accused authorities of blocking a convoy of 12 trucks trying to get into the embattled city and said: “We will judge the regime by what it does, not by what it says.”

State TV said a Syrian official and a UN representative were meeting in Homs to discuss how to evacuate women and children from rebel-held areas. It was unclear when the evacuation would start.

Homs governor Talal Barrazi blamed terrorist snipers for the failed convoy of aid. Mr Barrazi said authorities are willing to evacuate civilians who want to leave Homs to “any place they want to go to” and will get food and medical supplies.

“We are waiting for an answer from international organisation representatives to specify the number of those who want to leave,” Mr Barrazi said.

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A leading Iraqi militant who served under Saddam Hussein and is now second in command in an al-Qaida-linked group has been killed in Syria in clashes with rival Islamic factions, activists say.

Haji Bakr was deputy chief of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and was killed earlier this month in the town of Tal Rifaat. In-fighting between Islamists has killed 1,400 this month.

Justice must not get lost in quest for peace: Page 11.