Syrian peace talks in Geneva resumed on Thursday after breaking down 10 months ago as the battle for Aleppo escalated, with the U.N. mediator hoping to corral the warring sides into a rare face-to-face meeting, Reuters reported. The aim is to end almost six years of war by agreeing on the future governance of Syria, where the position of President Bashar al-Assad is stronger now than a year ago after government forces gained control of Aleppo with Russian military backing. The scope of the talks has been cut back to core political questions since last year, after an initiative by Russia, Turkey and Iran took thorny military issues off the Geneva agenda and assigned them to a separate process in the Kazakhstan's Astana.
