On April 13, the Saudi-owned, London-based Asharq al-Awsat daily carried the following report: “Diplomatic sources in Paris said that the round of new talks that will be launched in Geneva today will be “decisive” in respect to the method that UN Envoy, Staffan de Mistura, will employ to find solutions to the Syrian crisis. The sources that spoke to Asharq al-Awsat yesterday in Paris believe that “if De Mistura does not return from his new preparatory round with real support to discuss the central issue (i.e. the transitional phase), then his efforts will fail and they he will have to give up on following up with them.”

“Until now, De Mistura did not reveal the outcomes of his mission in Moscow and Damascus. He merely stuck to the general matters pending the conclusion of his tour. According to the diplomatic sources, he wants this tour to achieve two main things: First, to learn the views of the influential regional and international parties concerning the transitional phase; and second, to make sure that these parties are willing to help him by pressuring the regime and the opposition.

“The sources added that De Mistura is no longer willing to delay or work around the difficult situations in light of a first round that ended before it started and a second round that only yielded a statement issued by the office of the UN envoy and including the general principles for an agreement between the two conflicting parties. However, this statement has no legal value and is no more than a “memorandum” that De Mistura wishes to use as a basis for moving into the next phase.

“The question that De Mistura will have to answer today concerns his ability to launch the discussions regarding the subject of the political transfer and its contents based on the written answers that he is expecting to the 29 questions that he had sent to the two sides… His main mission will then consist…of comparing the answers and fining common grounds allowing him to take off towards the heart of the matter, i.e. the transitional phase..."