Geneva - Peace talks aimed at ending the conflict in Syria will resume in Geneva on March 9, UN envoy Staffan de Mistura's office said Tuesday, announcing a two-day postponement.
"Intra-Syrian peace talks will resume in the afternoon of 9 March," de Mistura's office said in a statement. "The 7th of March 2016 was initially set as the target date for the resumption of peace talks," but a short delay was needed "to allow adequate time to address logistical and practical matters."
"Mr. de Mistura looks forward to Syrian participants’ engagement in serious discussions," the statement added.
A first round of talks which began early last month was cut short amid intensifying Russian airstrikes in Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad's forces. Warring parties, excluding the Islamic State group and Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front, have agreed to a truce brokered by the US and Russia, which the United Nations has said is broadly holding despite isolated incidents of fighting.
The UN has said an extended commitment to the ceasefire by all sides would raise hope of the talks succeeding, after repeated diplomatic efforts to end the conflict have failed.
Moreover, Israel said on Tuesday that Syrian government forces have used chemical weapons against civilians since the start of a ceasefire aimed at preparing the way for an end to the five-year civil war.
The truce, sponsored by Russia and the United States, began on Saturday and has been dogged by opposition charges of non-compliance by Damascus - something President Bashar al-Assad has denied. It does not apply to missions against jihadist rebels.
"The Syrians used military grade chemical weapons and lately have been using materials, chlorine, against civilians, including in these very days, after the supposed ceasefire, dropping barrels of chlorine on civilians," Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon said in a speech to a conference organised by the New Tech military and aviation group in Airport City, near Tel Aviv. He did not provide further details.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the Syria truce efforts on Sunday but said his country might still carry out attacks in the neighbouring Arab state to thwart any threats to its security.
A fact-finding mission of the global chemical weapons watchdog (OPCW) concluded in 2014 that the use of chlorine gas has been "systematic" in the Syrian civil war, even after the country surrendered its stockpile of toxic weapons. Both sides have denied using chlorine "barrel" bombs, which the OPCW said are dropped out of helicopters. The Syrian air force is the only party in the conflict known to have helicopters.