By George Baghdadi CBS News/GENEVA — Representatives from the Syrian government and opposition forces held separate meetings with U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura on Friday in Geneva in the first full day of fresh talks that appear headed for failure. U.N. mediator for Syria Staffan de Mistura attends a news conference after a meeting at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, January 12, 2017. The talks have been marked by disputes from the start, surfacing first among the ranks of opposition representatives themselves. The High Negotiations Committee (HNC), the main opposition group, insisted on being the only rebel delegation in the talks, following demands by two other groups based in Moscow and Cairo demanding a seat at the table. This latest round of talks, known as “Geneva IV,” appears unlikely to resolve the war in Syria that has claimed the lives of more than 300,000 people, created the world’s worst refugee crisis and fueled the rise of the Islamic State.

Source: GNN Liberia February 24, 2017 22:18 UTC