UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- The UN's top envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura on Thursday called for stepped up political engagement among key players to support the Geneva process which aims at solving the Syrian crisis.
Briefing the UN Security Council by video teleconference on the situation in Syria, de Mistura said that new talks between Syria's government and opposition will start November 28 and urged those with influence to press both sides to be ready "to negotiate substance."
De Mistura emphasized that after the developments in Raqqa and Deir Ezzour, it is time "to move ahead on the political track" and he said any initiative should be judged on the basis of how it can contribute to the Geneva process.
The Islamic State has been steadily losing territory this year, losing the cities of Mosul, Deir Ezzour and their de facto capital of Raqqa in northern Syria.
De Mistura told the Security Council that he hopes a meeting in Kazakhstan's capital Astana on October 30-31, co-sponsored by Turkey, Iran and Russia, will "prevent further unraveling of interim de-escalation and cease-fire arrangements" in Syria.
Meanwhile, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent started delivering humanitarian assistance on Thursday provided by the UN to the hard-to-reach towns in rural Damascus, he said, adding that the aid consisted of food, nutrition, health, hygiene and other emergency supplies for 35,000 people in need.
The UN continues to call for safe, unimpeded and sustained access for close to three million people in hard-to-reach and besieged areas, including the facilitation of medical evacuations in line with international humanitarian law and international human rights law.
The Geneva peace talks on Syria in 2017, also called the Geneva IV talks, were peace negotiations between the Syrian government and the Syrian opposition under the auspices of the United Nations. The talks took place between February 23 and March 3, trying to resolve the Syrian Civil War which began in 2011.
