Syria talks to focus on truce, aid, German Foreign Minister says

PanARMENIAN.Net - Major power talks on Syria aim to restore a truce across the country and get aid into besieged areas to encourage opposition groups to return to negotiations in Geneva, Germany's Foreign Minister said on Tuesday, May 17, according to Reuters.

"We must find a way back into the political process ... It's about improving the conditions for the ceasefire and humanitarian aid so as to win the opposition over to negotiate with the regime in Geneva," Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in Vienna ahead of a meeting of 17 countries backing the talks.

Steinmeier spoke with journalists before the United States, Russia, European powers and Middle Eastern states opened talks aiming to revive a February "cessation of hostilities" agreement that managed to reduce fighting for almost two months, Reuters says.

A recent surge in bloodshed in Aleppo, Syria's largest city before the war, wrecked the partial truce sponsored by Washington and Moscow that had allowed U.N.-brokered peace talks to convene in Geneva.

The talks collapsed last month after the opposition walked away following an increase in violence. Diplomats say the UN special envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura hopes to launch a new round of negotiations by the end of May.

He is trying to meet an Aug. 1 deadline to establish a transitional authority for the country that would lead to elections in 18 months.

"We'll need to see the guarantors of the ceasefire - Russia and the U.S. - putting something down that will really convince the opposition that this process is worthwhile," said a senior western diplomat involved in the talks.

"Sadly, I don't sense that and fear the U.S. will try to impose a text that is excessively optimistic, but for which its implementation will not be possible."