'Where is US in all this?'
UN envoy Staffan de Mistura yesterday questioned US President Donald Trump's engagement in solving the Syrian conflict, just days ahead of crucial peace talks in Geneva.
"Where is the US in all this? I can't tell you because I don't know," he said, adding that the new administration was still trying to work out its priorities on the issue.
The US' top three priorities include fighting Islamic State jihadists, "how to limit the influence of some major regional players and how to not to damage one of their major allies in the region," said de Mistura.
"How you square this circle, that I understand is what they are discussing in Washington," he added.
Mistura stressed that what was ultimately key was the prospect of an inclusive political solution to end the conflict.
"Even a ceasefire with two guarantors can't hold too long if there is no political horizon," he said, referring to recent talks in Astana brokered by Russia and Turkey.
Any political solution has to be inclusive to be credible, he said, stressing that the Astana talks and the ceasefire agreed provided an opening that should be explored.
A new round of United Nations-led talks are due to be held in Geneva on February 23, involving Syrian regime and rebel representatives.
Meanwhile, sixteen people, including two women, were killed Saturday when government forces launched a barrage of rockets that hit a funeral on the edges of the Syrian capital, a monitor said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said "seven rockets and several shells hit areas on the edges of Qabun", a northeastern district of Damascus held by rebels.
"The shelling targeted a cemetery while someone was being buried there," said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.
Abdel Rahman had earlier given a toll of nine killed, but several people succumbed to their wounds in the hours after the attack.
"There are still some people who are critically wounded," he said.
Rebels and regime forces reached a local truce deal in Qabun in 2014, but violence steadily escalated in the neighbourhood which is now bombarded regularly.
Also on Saturday, three civilians were killed in government air strikes on Waer, the last opposition-held district of the central city of Homs.
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