No sign of progress as Syria talks conclude

Talks between representatives of the Syrian government and some mainstream members of the opposition concluded yesterday in Moscow with no sign of progress towards ending a four-year-old conflict that has killed more than 220,000 people.

The second such meeting this year in Russia, an ally of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, was marred by friction among the opposition delegates and was boycotted by the Syrian National Coalition, a Western-backed group based in Istanbul.

Russian mediator Vitaly Naumkin, Qadri Jamil, a former Syrian government official now with the opposition, and the head of the Syrian government delegation in Moscow, Bashar al-Jaafari, praised an accord they said both sides had endorsed.