UN Envoy Announces ‘Temporary Pause’ to Syria Peace Talks

The U.N. envoy for Syria on Wednesday announced a “temporary pause” in peace talks in Geneva just two days after they officially began amid intensified fighting, saying the process will resume later this month.

Staffan de Mistura, U.N. envoy for Syria, at a press briefing at the Syrian peace talks in Geneva on Feb. 3, 2016. The UN special envoy for Syria announced on Wednesday a 'temporary pause' until Feb. 25 of troubled talks in Switzerland aimed at ending the civil war. Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images

GENEVA—The peace talks in the Syrian civil war are taking a break. The fighting is not.

U.N. Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura announced Wednesday there would be a “temporary pause” in the indirect peace talks between the government and opposition, saying the process will resume Feb. 25.

In a statement later in the day, de Mistura’s office said the talks would take a “recess” by the end of Friday and would resume “no later than 25 February, and possibly much earlier.”

The delay reflects the rocky start of the talks Monday in which neither the government nor the opposition even acknowledged that the negotiations had officially begun.

“It is not the end, and it is not the failure of the talks,” de Mistura told reporters after a meeting with opposition leaders.

It is not the end, and it is not the failure of the talks.

— Staffan de Mistura, U.N. envoy for Syria