UN: Syria talks in Geneva delayed

By Fatih Erel

GENEVA

Syria peace talks in Geneva scheduled for Thursday have been delayed, an UN official said on Tuesday.

Syria peace talks have been "delayed for technical and logistics reasons", a UN official told an Anadolu Agency correspondent.

The official did not give further information about when the talks would resume.

UN envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura had announced a “temporary pause” of the peace talks on Feb. 2 due to intensified fighting in Syria and had set the date of Feb. 25 for their resumption in Geneva.

The talks aimed to end the five-year war in Syria, which has caused more than 250,000 deaths and displaced more than 11 million people.

A halt to ongoing hostilities in Syria is scheduled to go into effect Saturday, the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russia announced Monday. Daesh and al-Qaeda’s Syria affiliate, the Nusra Front, are excluded from the cease-fire as well as other unspecified UN Security Council-designated terrorist organizations.