The expert panel’s report and tough remarks by the US secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, overshadowed the announcement that UN-sponsored peace talks will resume next month. The report will increase pressure on Assad’s regime just as Washington, in the wake of battlefield victories against Islamic State, renews calls for him to step down. “We do not believe there is a future for the Assad regime, the Assad family,” Tillerson said. De Mistura hopes to convene an eighth round of Syrian peace talks between Assad’s regime and an opposition coalition in Geneva from 28 November. His successor, Donald Trump, did order one missile strike on a Syrian airbase in response to a chemical attack.

Source: The Guardian October 26, 2017 22:07 UTC