Syria Peace Talks Begin as Government Troops Advance

Government troops captured hills near Aleppo on Monday, occupying a key supply route used by the opposition forces.

The United Nations announced the formal start of peace talks for Syria on Monday and urged world powers to push for a ceasefire even as government forces, backed by Russian airstrikes, launched their biggest offensive north of Aleppo in a year.

Government troops and allied fighters captured the hilly countryside near Aleppo on Monday, 1 February, putting a key supply route used by opposition forces into firing range, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group.

Rebels said the offensive was being conducted with massive Russian air support, despite a promise of goodwill steps by the Syrian government to spur peace negotiations.

The opposition has said that without a halt to bombing, the lifting of sieges on towns and freeing of prisoners, it will not participate in talks in Geneva called by the UN.

We are here for a few days. Just to be clear, only a few days. If there (is) no progress on the ground, we are leaving ... We are not here for negotiations, we are here to test the regime’s intentions.

Monzer Makhous, an official from the Syrian opposition’s High Negotiations Committee

Still, opposition delegates met in Geneva for two hours with UN envoy Staffan de Mistura, who said this session marked the official beginning of peace talks. The Syrian people deserved to see improvements on the ground and the opposition had a “strong point” in demanding goodwill steps, he said.

The Geneva peace talks mark the first attempt in two years to hold negotiations to end a war that has drawn in regional and international powers, killed at least 250,000 people and forced 10 million from their homes.

A senior US official returned from a fact-finding visit to northern Syrian territory held by Kurdish fighters, who have advanced against ISIS militants with the help of US air support.