PHOTO: Regime rejects discussion of President Assad’s future ahead of Monday’s conference

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UPDATE 1900 GMT: The head of the regime delegation, UN Ambassador Bashar al-Jaafari, has hailed a “positive and constructive…dialogue” with UN envoy Staffan de Mistura in Geneva.

Jaafari said the regime group presented ideas on “‘Essential Elements for the Political Resolution’ which should enrich de Mistura’s diplomatic efforts when he meets the other delegations”.

The Ambassador said de Mistura will see the opposition-rebel bloc on Tuesday and meet the Assad representatives on Wednesday.

Jaafari did not say if President Assad’s future had been discussed, following the regime’s peremptory dismissal on Saturday of any consideration of the issue or of Presidential elections.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Political talks over Syria’s five-year crisis are renewed in Geneva on Monday, but with little sign of advance amid regime refusal to discuss the future of President Assad.

The discussions are the first since a partial cessation of hostilities, brokered by the US and Russia, on February 27.

UN envoy Staffan de Mistura convened a brief attempt for “proximity talks” between the regime and the opposition-rebel High Negotiations Committees at the start of February. However, the effort foundered amid continuing Russian and regime attacks on opposition territory.

Last week de Mistura obtained agreement from Damascus and the HNC to attend this week’s talks. However, on Saturday, Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem rejected the condition — long held not only by the opposition-rebel bloc but also by the US, European partners, and Arab states — for Assad’s departure:

We will not talk to anyone who talks about the position of the presidency….I advise them that if this is their thinking, they shouldn’t come to the talks.

Moallem bluntly rebuffed De Mistura’s statement setting out elections at the end of an 18-month political transition: “Neither he [de Mistura] nor anyone else, whoever they may be, has the right to discuss presidential elections. This right is exclusively for the Syrian people.”

On Sunday, the head of the regime’s delegation, UN Ambassador Bashar al-Jaafari, issued a convoluted statement claiming that the UN envoy had understood Moallem’s red line on Assad: “We repeated al-Moallem’s speech and we noticed an understanding by Di Mistura of the notability of the Syrian official stance and the context of al-Moallem’s speech on this issue.”

He was clearer in pushing aside any discussion of “the transitional government” and “the role of President Bashar al-Assad”: “We are still in the preparatory stage…and talking about essential issues that touch a symbol of the sovereignty in Syria is a moving out from good negotiation manners and a feverish endeavor to make the second round of talks a failure”.

The regime comments posed a challenge to US Secretary of State John Kerry, who has set a goal of the end of March to start the transition. He said Moallem is “clearly trying to disrupt the process… clearly trying to send a message of deterrence to others”.

Kerry urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to press Damascus, saying he should be concerned that Assad had used his Foreign Minister “to try and act as a spoiler, to take off the table something that president Putin and Iran had committed to”.

Leading rebel commander Bashar al-Zoubi, a former Syrian Army general, anticipated a quick breakdown of the negotiations, given the regime’s position, “I expect that if in this round the regime is stubborn, and doesn’t offer anything real, it will be the end of the talks and we will go back to the military solution.”

Video: Refugee Children — “We Are Running Away from Death”

Syrian children on the Greek-Macedonian border explain, “We are not beggars seeking financial aid. We are people running away from death”:

European States are trying to close the border with northern Greece to prevent any onward refugee movement.

Rebels Continue Advance Against ISIS in Northern Aleppo

Rebels have continued their recent advance against the Islamic State in northern Aleppo Province, capturing villages including Ghazel.

Rebel fighters from several factions announced control of Ghazel in a video in Sunday night.

Last Friday, rebels advanced into the village of Dudiyan, on the Turkish border and north of the town of Mare’, where rebels and ISIS have faced each other since early 2014.