Geneva Meet Friday for Syria Humanitarian Access

Representatives of 17 countries will meet in Geneva Friday afternoon for United Nations-hosted talks on how to ensure humanitarian access in war-ravaged Syria, a U.N. spokeswoman said.

"The humanitarian group will meet today at 4:00 pm (1500 GMT)," Khawla Mattar, a spokeswoman for U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura, told AFP in an email.

She added, though, that de Mistura, who had stayed behind in Munich after talks there overnight, would not be hosting the meeting.

At the Munich talks, world powers agreed to an ambitious plan to cease hostilities in Syria within a week and dramatically ramp up humanitarian access in the war-ravaged country.

The so-called International Syria Support Group created two task forces to achieve that goal.

One will work out the "modalities for a long-term, comprehensive and durable cessation of violence," U.N. Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters in Munich.

The other one, which Mattar said included representatives from all 17 countries, will oversee the delivery of aid, including pressure on Syria to open routes, since only around a dozen of 116 U.N. access requests have been granted.

Halting the violence and sending in desperately needed aid are seen as crucial steps that need to be taken before peace talks can begin in earnest.

Indirect talks in Geneva between the warring sides, hosted by de Mistura, collapsed before really beginning earlier this month after troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad, backed by Russian bombers and Iranian fighters, pressed an offensive on the key rebel stronghold of Aleppo.

The bombardments have forced 50,000 people to flee, left the opposition virtually encircled and killed an estimated 500 people since they began on February 1 -- the latest hellish twist in a war that has claimed more than 260,000 lives.