De Mistura: Syria Talks in Geneva End with Clear Agenda

The top United Nations diplomat working to resolve the foreign-sparked war in Syria reported some progress Friday after nearly 10 days of talks, saying both sides finally had agreed on what he described as a “clear agenda” for further negotiations.

The diplomat, Staffan de Mistura, said discussions of counterterrorism and security had been added to the list of topics to be addressed on the agenda to end the war, which is about to enter its seventh year.

“I think and believe we have a clear agenda now in front of us,” Mr. de Mistura told a news conference in Geneva, the New York Times reported.

The progress on defining what the Syrian antagonists would even talk about spoke volumes about the frustrations that have vexed Mr. de Mistura in the talks, which have been held off and on for years and have been punctuated by acrimony and false hope.

Even now, Mr. de Mistura said, the team of Syrian government negotiators and the opposition representatives use him as an intermediary to exchange positions.

“At the moment, it’s more effective to have proxy meeting discussions, like we have had this time,” Mr. de Mistura said. He also acknowledged that after so much war and recrimination, “we shouldn’t expect a breakthrough.”

He added that the next round of discussions would be held later this month, after he reported to Secretary General António Guterres and the Security Council next week.

While de Mistura said he expected that both Assad’s government and the coalition of opposition groups would continue to publicly denounce each other, “this is part of the rhetoric.”

In private, he said: “I know what I heard and what I saw. That gives me some feeling we are moving in the right direction.”