REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, GENEVA -- The UN's special envoy warned all hope to resolve Syria's civil war would be lost if the latest attempt at peace talks failed, after the opposition said Russian airstrikes threatened to derail the discussions before they had begun.
The main opposition umbrella group attending the talks said Russia's "unprecedented" bombardment near Aleppo -- 270 raids since Monday morning, according to monitors -- threatened to scupper efforts to end the almost five-year conflict.
"Since last night a big massacre is taking place in Syria and nobody is doing anything. Nobody is saying anything, the international community is completely blind," said Salem al-Meslet from the High Negotiations Committee (HNC).
On Monday, UN special envoy Staffan de Mistura declared that indirect talks between the government and the opposition had officially begun in Switzerland, saying he hoped to "achieve something" by February 11.
But as cracks began to emerge on Tuesday he warned they were the last chance to bring about an end to a conflict that has left 260,000 people dead and forced more than half of Syria's population to flee their homes.
"If there is a failure this time, after two previous meetings in Geneva on Syria, then all hope will be lost," he told Swiss TV channel Radio Television Suisse.
Chief negotiator for Syria's government, Bashar al-Jaafari, had earlier cast doubt on the gravity of the talks, saying they were still "in a preparatory phase", the opposition had not named its negotiating team and there was no agenda.
And the HNC cancelled a meeting with the UN envoy scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, with member Farah Atassi saying that "at this moment, there is no reason to repeat ourselves with de Mistura".
The group has demanded the regime allow humanitarian access to besieged towns, stop bombing civilians and release thousands of prisoners -- some of them children -- languishing in regime jails.
It also expressed outrage at the regime offensive, backed by Russian jets and allied militants, that allowed government forces to edge closer to breaking a long-running rebel siege on two government-held Shiite villages in Aleppo province.
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