UN Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura called the latest round of peace talks in Geneva as “a big missed opportunity,” adding that only continued dialogue would bring peace to the war-torn-country. De Mistura said, “So we did not have, in spite, believe me, of a lot of efforts by my whole team, day and night, with all sort of creative formulas, we did not have real negotiations,” he said. The U.N. envoy for Syria further asserted that the last round of negotiations in Geneva was “a big missed opportunity. A golden opportunity at the end of this year, when in fact there is a clear indication by many sides that the military operations are coming to a close, that Daesh territory is reduced to close to zero. But at the same time, everybody knows, everybody agrees — believe me because I talk to them privately and separately, publicly as well — that without a clear political process, we risk to not have learnt the lessons of Mosul, and we risk to not have what should be winning the peace, not only winning the war against Daesh,” he said.
Speaking in Geneva, De Mistura said that neither side had actually “sabotaged” the latest talks by refusing to attend, but laid most of the blame for the failure of the talks at the door of the Syrian government. De Mistura voiced milder disappointment with the Syrian opposition, after they arrived in Switzerland ruling out any future role for Assad, a position Damascus said was ” counter-productive and detached from reality.”