Geneva — UN-backed Syria peace talks resumed in Geneva on Thursday, with little hope of a breakthrough and the emboldened regime seen as unlikely to make concessions. The UN deputy Syria envoy Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy met government negotiators at a high-end hotel in the Swiss city, before heading to another hotel to see the opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC). "We have started today preliminary talks," Ramzy said after his meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s representatives. "We hope we will be starting substantive discussions [on Friday]." Ramzy’s boss, UN mediator Staffan de Mistura, was wrapping up a diplomatic tour of the key powers shaping the conflict, which included trips to Moscow, Riyadh and Ankara. De Mistura is due back in Geneva on Thursday evening to take charge of the negotiations which have yielded little in four previous rounds. The UN is aiming for a political deal to end a six-year conflict that has killed more than 320,000 people and displaced mi...
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