Syrian government and opposition signal willingness to attend Geneva talks

The Syrian government will attend a new round of peace talks with the opposition in Geneva starting on 14 March, a source close to the regime delegation indicated on Monday. 

"The delegation received an invitation on Sunday from the United Nations, asking us to take part in negotiations starting March 14 in Geneva," the source told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The UN's Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura had originally scheduled the new talks, which come with a partial ceasefire in place between pro-government forces and some rebel groups, to begin from Thursday, but officials said a few more days were needed to make preparations.

Members of Syria's main opposition council also indicated that it would send representatives to Switzerland, although the head of the High Negotiations Committee (HNC) remained non-committal about whether the group would take part in the talks themselves.

"The HNC will assess the situation in the coming days and we will take the appropriate decision," said Riad Hijab.

Earlier, Riad Agha, another member of the HNC, said it had agreed to go to Geneva, adding that he hoped nothing would happen to prevent the HNC from going to the talks.

"The delegation is expected to arrive on Friday," he said.

The indirect negotiations would be the first held since an unprecedented ceasefire took hold on 27 February following an agreement between Russia and the United States, although the government and the opposition have accused each other of violating it.

HNC coordinator Riad Hijab said on Friday that Russia and its allies had carried out 90 air strikes in the country since the ceasefire was declared last weekend and that current conditions were not favourable for the negotiations.

But Agha said that violations on the part of Assad's government and its allies had reduced in the past few days.

"We started to notice that the volume of violations has started to reduce in the last two days. We hope that in the coming days until Friday that the violations reach zero," he said.

"If these violations end this will create the favourable environment for the start of negotiations."

"We find that the international community is insisting that all the sides, especially Russia and the regime, must respect the truce," he added.

Agha also said that the HNC wanted an immediate start to negotiations on a transitional governing body.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the average number of civilian deaths a day had fallen by 90 percent since the ceasefire came into force nine days ago, with an 80 percent decline among soldiers and rebel forces.