On the fifth day of the fourth round of the intra-Syrian talks, UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura met the Syrian opposition delegation headed by Nasr Hariri, a senior member of the largest anti-regime group, the Syrian National Coalition.
"The regime is actually coordinating with Daesh and has opened a corridor to prevent the Free Syrian Army from fighting Daesh," Hariri told a news conference at the UN at Geneva following a two-hour meeting with de Mistura.
Claiming the regime did not want the FSA to defeat the terror group, Hariri said: "This regime is setting up a buffer zone between the FSA and Daesh." "We just gave the special envoy a video of testimony of a former detainee who was detained by the FSA and was recently released. In the video, he explains and testifies how regime forces are coordinating with Daesh," Hariri said.
About a possible change in Russia's political position at the Syria talks, Hariri said: "We see an openness of their position." The opposition delegation is expected to meet Russian officials in Geneva.
Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the regime of Bashar al-Assad cracked down on pro-democracy protests -- which erupted as part of the Arab Spring uprisings -- with unexpected ferocity.
Since then, more than a quarter of a million people have been killed and upwards of 10 million displaced across the war-torn country, according to the UN. The Syrian Center for Policy Research puts the death toll at more than 470,000.