Syria talks challenged as over 80 killed in suicide blasts

PanARMENIAN.Net - UN efforts to launch a new round of Syria peace talks sputtered Saturday, February 25 as suicide attacks killed dozens of people, raising the death toll from two days of violence to more than 80, AFP said.

The blasts which targeted two security service bases in Homs, Syria's third city, killed a top intelligence chief and close confidant of President Bashar al-Assad, and were claimed by former Al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh al-Sham Front.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 42 people were killed, but the provincial governor put the figure at 30 dead in bloodshed which came just 24 hours after another suicide bombing in the northern town of Al-Bab that killed 51.

That attack was claimed by Islamic State (IS) group militants.

In Geneva, Syrian government and opposition negotiators were to continue meetings with United Nations mediator Staffan de Mistura through the weekend although there was little hope for a breakthrough.

After meeting de Mistura on Friday, regime delegation chief Bashar al-Jaafari said he would study a UN paper on the "format" of the talks, but gave no indication that the negotiations had any momentum.

The main opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC) described its meeting with de Mistura as "positive", without elaborating on a possible path forward.

During three previous rounds of talks in Geneva last year, the rivals never sat down at the same table, instead leaving de Mistura to shuttle between them.

The HNC has said it wants to meet the government face-to-face this time.

At the end of Friday's negotiations, de Mistura's acting chief of staff Michael Contet signalled there was no immediate prospect of direct talks.