叙利亚和谈无望出现突破

The U.N.'s chief mediator for the intra-Syrian talks says he does not see any imminent breakthrough on the horizon.

On the eve of a new round of Syrian peace talks, Staffan de Mistura, the U.N. special envoy for Syria, downplayed expectations, but said that there was a “political momentum” to move ahead on efforts to end the long-standing civil war.

Syria's warring parties last met in Geneva nearly nine months ago. That round of talks broke down because of repeated violations of a cease-fire agreement.

De Mistura acknowledged that the successful resumption of the failed negotiations hinged largely on the warring parties abiding by the current cease-fire.

He said Russia, which had worked out the agreement with Turkey in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, was using its influence to see that the fragile cease-fire held.

The U.N. envoy warned that there were, what he called “spoilers,” who would try to provoke one side or the other to walk out of the talks or to refuse to talk.

Syria's nearly six-year-long civil war has killed around 400,000 people, displaced more than 6 million inside Syria, half of them children and prompted nearly 5 million to flee as refugees into neighboring countries. An estimated 13.5 million people need humanitarian assistance.

联合国负责叙利亚事务的首席谈判人员说，他在近期内看不到谈判会有任何突破。

在新一轮叙利亚和谈前夕，联合国叙利亚问题特使德米斯图拉告诉人们不要期待太高，但表示目前有一股“政治势头”，向前推动为结束长期内战所作的努力。

叙利亚交战各方上一次会面是近九个月前在日内瓦举行的会议上。那一轮谈判由于停火协定一再被违反而中断。

德米斯图拉承认，成功重启之前失败的谈判主要取决于交战各方是否遵守目前的停火。

他说，俄罗斯与土耳其在哈萨克斯坦首都阿斯塔纳达成协议，并正在利用其影响力维持脆弱的停火。

这位联合国特使警告说，仍会有他所说的“坏事者”，试图对参加会谈的一方进行挑衅，使他们离开会谈，或拒绝谈话。

叙利亚近六年的内战已经导致约40万人丧生，600多万人在叙利亚境内流离失所，其中一半是儿童。这促使近500万人作为难民逃到邻国。目前估计叙利亚有1350万人需要人道主义援助。