GENEVA
UN Envoy Lakhdar Brahimi struck a positive note on the final day of the first round of Syria talks in Geneva this week even as he said the sides had not achieved "any progress to speak of."
Brahimi told reporters Friday that "the gap remains wide" between the Syrian regime and the opposition delegations after their week of first direct negotiations.
"We haven’t made any progress to speak of," Brahimi told reporters. "There is no point in pretending otherwise."
But he said the sides were getting used to talking and listening to each other and there were even moments when they "acknowledged the concerns, difficulties and point of view of the other side."
A second round of talks should begin February 10, Brahimi said. He said the opposition agreed to the date, while the Syrian regime delegation said they would first need to consult officials in Damascus, the Syrian capital.
Brahimi said he hoped the talks would "resume on the basis of an agreed agenda."
The sides are negotiating on the basis of the first international conference in Geneva in 2012, which calls for an end to the three-year civil war and for the establishment of a transitional government without Syria's embattled leader Bashar Assad.
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