Latest Syria talks wrap up: 'No breakthrough, no breakdown'
The seventh round of intra-Syria talks aimed at helping end the country's six-year-old war wrapped up Friday, and the UN envoy said they featured "no breakthrough, no breakdown, no one walking out, incremental progress."
Staffan de Mistura, the special UN envoy for Syria, said the Syrian government has not budged in its unwillingness to discuss political transition at the talks in Geneva while President Bashar Assad's representatives have pursued an almost incessant theme of the fight against terrorism.
Saying Assad's envoys claim to be the only ones talking about the fight against terrorist groups, de Mistura said no side should have "ownership" of that issue. He went on to "clarify some thoughts" about terrorism, mostly reiterating longstanding UN positions that he believes have increasingly appeared dormant.
