Syria's warring sides to meet in same room Saturday, mediator says
GENEVA -- The two opposing sides in Syria's peace negotiations have agreed to meet in the same room, the chief United Nations mediator announced Friday, following a turbulent first day of talks during which the two camps remained apart and the Syrian government threatened to withdraw.
“We are going to meet tomorrow,” Lakhdar Brahimi, the U.N.-Arab League special envoy for Syria, told journalists, dismissing speculation that the long-awaited Syrian peace initiative was unraveling.
"I hope that it will be a good beginning, and that we will continue until the end of next week. ... Nobody will be leaving on Saturday, and nobody will be leaving on Sunday,” he said.
Brahimi said the two sides would be meeting “in the same room,” but did not specify that the session would be face to face. That left open the possibility that the two delegations could be sitting at different tables or that some other accommodation would be made to avoid a face-to-face encounter.
http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-syria-peace-talks-20140124,0,272564.story
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