Syria peace talks hosted by the United Nations in Geneva spawned a new series of meetings on Thursday with no hint of tangible progress toward a deal to end the six-year-old civil war.
U.N. mediator Staffan de Mistura had promised a refreshingly brisk pace of business-like meetings over a short four-day round, with new elections, a new constitution, reformed governance and counter-terrorism on the agenda.
He opened proceedings on Thursday by proposing setting up a "consultative mechanism", which he would head, to avoid a power vacuum in Syria before a new constitution is in place.