叙利亚问题谈判步履艰难进入第二天

Fragile indirect negotiations to end Syria’s nearly five-year-old conflict went into a second day Tuesday in Geneva with both sides accusing each other of lacking good will.

U.N. Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, went into talks Tuesday with a delegation representing the government of President Bashar al-Assad, a meeting that he had postponed from Monday while he convinced the opposition to stay on.

De Mistura declared the talks officially under way late Monday, following a two-hour meeting with the opposition.

“As far as we are concerned, their arrival to the Palais des Nations and initiating the discussion with us is the official beginning of the Geneva talks,” the U.N. envoy said.

The formal start came exactly one week after they were originally scheduled to begin.

Talks were delayed by discussions of who should represent the opposition, then by an opposition boycott and the opposition’s demands for an end to air strikes and a lifting of blockades on rebel-held areas.