Syria peace talks hit trouble after ISIS blast kills 60

Syria’s main opposition group met U.N. mediator Staffan de Mistura for the first time on Sunday, but the talks ran straight into trouble after Islamic State bombers killed more than 60 people near the country’s holiest Shi'ite shrine. Representatives of the Saudi-backed Higher Negotiation Committee (HNC) - which includes political and militant opponents of President Bashar Assad - warned they may yet walk away from the Geneva talks unless the suffering of civilians in the five-year conflict is eased.

I urge all parties to put the people of Syria at the heart of their discussions, and above partisan interests.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

Syria’s state news agency said that the blasts went off in Sayyda Zeinab, a predominantly Shiite Muslim suburb of the Syrian capital, wounding more than 100 people. The agency said attackers detonated a car bomb at a bus stop and that two suicide bombers set off more explosives as rescuers rushed to the area. The heavily populated area of southern Damascus is a site of pilgrimage for Shi'ites from Iran, Lebanon and other parts of the Muslim world. Islamic State has been excluded from the talks as the U.N. has classified it a terrorist group. Nevertheless, the government claimed the blasts merely confirmed the link between the opposition and terrorism.

This confirms what the Syrian government has said over and over again - that there is a link between terrorism and those who sponsor terrorism from one side and some political groups that pretend to be against terrorism.

The Syrian government’s delegation head in Geneva, Bashar al-Jaafari

Syria