Peace Talks to Begin on Monday

United Nations envoy Staffan de Mistura said on Wednesday he hopes the two warring sides in Syria will make progress within 10 days after peace talks resume in Geneva next week.

De Mistura said he expects the delegates, who will arrive in batches over the next few days, to begin a “substantive, deeper” round of negotiations on Monday. The talks will begin in proximity with the envoy and his team shuttling between separate parties in separate rooms.

“We believe that having a timetable and a time limit is healthy for everyone, so we don’t think that we can go on procedural discussions for two weeks hoping to get into substance – we go seriously into substance as soon as we can,” de Mistura said.

A recess in the negotiations is set to begin on March 24, giving delegates time to return home and to allow de Mistura and his team to take stock of what has been accomplished.

The agenda on Monday will cover issues including a new constitution, parliamentary and presidential elections and new governance for Syria, the envoy said, although he failed to touch on the future of President Bashar al-Assad.

De Mistura said the cessation of hostilities that has allowed for the resumption of peace talks is “open-ended,” brushing off calls for a renewal of the truce this weekend.

The talks will coincide with the fifth anniversary of the conflict that began with protests calling for the removal of Bashar al-Assad before turning into a multi-sided war involving multiple states.

ISIS Commander Still Alive, but Badly Wounded

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Thursday that a U.S. airstrike had severely wounded, but did not kill, a top commander in the so-called Islamic State group (ISIS), contradicting earlier reports by U.S. officials.

U.S. officials said on Tuesday that Abu Omar al-Shishani, described by the Pentagon as the ISIS “minister of war” was targeted in an airstrike near the town of al-Shaddadi.

Rami Abdulrahman, head of the Observatory, said Shishani was badly wounded and had been transported to Raqqa for treatment.

“He did not die,” Abdulrahman said.

The attack on Shishani involved multiple waves of manned and unmanned aircrafts, officials said.

An official in the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia told Reuters he had received information that Shishani had been killed but had no further information and had been unable to confirm the death.

Rebel Groups Attack Government Positions in Hama

Rebel groups launched an assault on government positions in Hama on Thursday in what one commander said was the largest attack in the area since the cease-fire agreement went into effect two weeks ago, Reuters reports.

There were conflicting accounts as to who carried out the attack and its success.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the assault, which was described as a “comprehensive attack,” was a failure and that 20 militants had been killed, describing them as Islamists, some of whom were foreign fighters.

But Fares al-Bayoush, head of the Free Syrian Army’s Northern Division, said the attack had been conducted by “local groups” in response to “violations that happened by the regime during the truce. The rebel commander said that two positions had been captured.

Syrian state television said the attack was carried out by the al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front and that 70 militants had been killed.

Recommended Reads

• The Guardian: Five Years of War in Syria: What Happened and Where We Are Now
• Foreign Policy: The Syrian Revolution Is Not a Holy War
• Foreign Policy: It’s Time to Seriously Consider Partitioning Syria
• The National Interest: Bosnia as a Model for Securing Syria
• The Washington Institute: How to Prevent al-Qaida From Seizing a Safe Zone in Northwestern Syria
• TIME: Putin Is Destroying My Dream of Returning to a Free Syria
• Counter Punch: Syria’s Truce Bodes Well for Salvaging our Cultural Heritage

Top image: Russian officers analyze a map in the Russian military coordination center at Hemeimeem Air Base in Syria on March 4, 2016. The Russian military says it has been in regular contact with the U.S. counterparts on monitoring the cease-fire that began two weeks ago. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)