VOA慢速英语:UN Diplomat Says Syria Talks to Continue Saturday

International efforts to bring an end to the conflict in Syria got off to a bad start on Friday. Talks between the Syrian government and the opposition coalition opened in Geneva, Switzerland. But the two sides refused to hold direct negotiations.
周五，国际社会致力于终止叙利亚冲突的努力开始得并不顺利。叙利亚政府与反对派联盟之间的谈判在瑞士日内瓦展开，但双方拒绝举行直接谈判。

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moualem is leading the government delegation. He announced he would leave if the talks do not get serious by Saturday. At the same time, a leader of the opposition delegation rejected the idea of face-to-face negotiations. Badr Jamous said there will be no direct talks until the government team accepts what is called the Geneva 1 communique. That document is supposed to be the starting point for the talks.
叙利亚外长Walid Muallem率领着政府代表团。他宣布，如果到周六谈判还未能认真进行，他将退出这次谈判。与此同时，反对派代表团负责人之一的Badr Jamous拒绝了面对面谈判的意见。他表示双方不会进行直接会谈，直到政府代表团接受日内瓦一次会议公报。这份文件应该是会谈的起跑点。

The Geneva 1 communique calls for the establishment of a temporary government in Syria. The opposition and its allies say that means Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must leave office. The president and his allies disagree.
日内瓦一次会议公报要求叙利亚组建临时政府。反对派及其联盟表示，这意味着叙利亚总统必须下台。而总统及其盟友不赞成。

The United Nations and Arab League diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi is taking part in the talks between the government and the opposition. He met with the two sides separately on Friday. The diplomat had predicted that this kind of dispute might delay the talks. But he expressed hope that he could get the two delegations to sit down together. Late Friday, Mr. Brahimi said the talks will continue on Saturday, in his words, "in the same room."
联合国和阿拉伯国家联盟外交官Lakhdar Brahimi参与了叙利亚政府和反对派之间的谈判。上周五他分别与双方代表举行了会晤。这位外交官预测，这种争端或许会延迟会谈。但是他表示有希望让双方代表团一起坐下来谈判。周五晚，普拉希米表示，会谈将于周六继续，用他的话说，“在同一间会议室进行”。

Observers had predicted such difficulties. On Wednesday, the Syrian foreign minister and opposition leader made conflicting statements at an international conference in nearby Montreux, Switzerland.
观察人士曾预言过这些困难。周三，叙利亚外交部长和反对派领袖在附近的蒙特勒一个国际会议上发表了互相冲突的声明。

David Butter is a Syria expert with London's Chatham House. He sees little hope of progress during the current talks.
David Butter是伦敦查塔姆研究所的一位叙利亚问题专家。他认为目前谈判进展希望不大。

"Both Syrian sides have got very different objectives going into it. And also, it's in a context where you can't really see either party to the internal conflict actually having any sort of decisive advantage, which would be the basis of some sort of bargaining process."
“叙利亚冲突双方的目标完全不同。而且，国内冲突的任何一方都没有决定性的优势，这是进行谈判的基础。”

The distrust is making it difficult for the negotiations to move forward.
不信任使得谈判难以继续向前。

The UN says more than nine million Syrians urgently need aid and many of them cannot be reached because of the fighting. The three-year long Syrian conflict has killed an estimated 100 thousand people.
联合国表示，超过9百万叙利亚人急需援助，而因为战争他们中很多人无法获得。长达三年的叙利亚冲突已经造成大约10万人遇难。

For weeks, diplomats have been preparing for the talks in Switzerland. Last Sunday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon invited Iran to take part in the one-day meeting at Montreux. But the Syrian National Coalition, threatened to boycott the talks if they included Iran. The United States said the only way Iran could take part was by supporting the establishment of a temporary government in Syria with full executive powers. This was an idea presented in the "Geneva 1 Communique". But, Iran has refused to say it supports the communique.
几周来，外交官们一直为瑞士会谈做准备。上周日，联合国秘书长潘基文邀请伊朗参加在蒙特勒举行的为期一天的会议。但叙利亚全国联盟威胁如果包括伊朗就要抵制会谈。美国表示，伊朗可能参加会谈的唯一途径是支持建立充分行政权力的叙利亚临时政府。这是日内瓦一号公报提出的意见。但伊朗拒绝表示自己支持该公报。

That forced Mr. Ban's spokesman to announce that Iran would not be attending the meeting in Montreux, nor the talks in Geneva.
这迫使潘基文先生的发言人宣布，伊朗不会参加蒙特勒会议，也不会参加日内瓦会谈。