International News

GENEVA, (APP/AFP) – Representatives of 17
countries will meet in Geneva Friday afternoon for United Nations-hosted talks on how to ensure humanitarian access in war-ravaged Syria, a UN spokeswoman said.
“The humanitarian group will meet today at 4:00 pm (1500 GMT),”
Khawla Mattar, a spokeswoman for UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura, told AFP in an email.
She added, though, that de Mistura, who had stayed behind in Munich
after talks there overnight, would not be hosting the meeting.
At the Munich talks, world powers agreed to an ambitious plan to
cease hostilities in Syria within a week and dramatically ramp up humanitarian access in the war-ravaged country.
The so-called International Syria Support Group created two task
forces to achieve that goal.
One will work out the “modalities for a long-term, comprehensive and
durable cessation of violence,” UN Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters in Munich.
The other one, which Mattar said included representatives from all 17
countries, will oversee the delivery of aid, including pressure on Syria to
open routes, since only around a dozen of 116 UN access requests have been
granted.