Syria\\\'s sides both talk \\\'terrorism\\\' but spar over blame
Friday, 31 January 2014
GENEVA, Jan 30 (AFP): Syria's warring sides discussed the issue of terrorism at a sixth day of UN-brokered peace talks Thursday, sources said, but the gulf over who is to blame remained deep.
Halting violence and terrorism in Syria was among the terms of the never-implemented "Geneva I" declaration made by an international conference here in 2012, and which forms the basis for the current talks.
The Syrian regime is spotlighting hardline Islamists groups among the rebels and therefore slapping the "terrorist" label on the broader opposition. Government negotiators repeatedly have insisted that the subject of terrorism must be foregrounded at the talks.