The United Nations mediator trying to broker peace after three years of civil war in Syria says the agreement by the antagonists to face each other at peace talks for the first time Saturday is an accomplishment to be measured in "half-steps."
Lakhdar Brahimi also says the conference would continue on Sunday, focusing on humanitarian aid, the one topic the Syrian government and the opposition could agree to discuss.
Syrian President Bashar Assad's delegation and the Syrian National Coalition have avoided directly touching on the war dividing them, or discussing Assad himself.
Louay Safi is a Syrian National Coalition member.
"We need to open those humanitarian corridors so that people can survive, but our main purpose of negotiating with the regime is to enter into transition from the rule of... from dictatorship into democracy."
The peace conference intends to forge a path out of the civil war that has killed 130-thousand people.
Diplomats have said even getting them to the same table can be considered an accomplishment three years into the conflict.
