The 8th round of the Geneva talks held under the lead of the United Nations (UN) to reach a solution in the civil war in Syria continued on the third day with meetings in the UN Geneva office.

Un Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura failed to bring the regime committee chaired by Bashar Jafar, Syria’s Permanent Representative to the UN, and the opposition committee chaired by Nasir Hariri who arrived in the Geneva UN office in the morning hours in the same room.

De Mistura had said that the priority was to bring the parties together in the same room in the first day of the talks, but ended up holding meetings in separate rooms as the regime committee refused to meet face to face with the opposition.

De Mistura will be going back and forth between parties in rooms across from each other throughout the 8th round of the Geneva talks.

De Mistura spoke on Wednesday and warned the committees to stay away from discussions of legitimacy, adding that he wanted the meetings to continue without preconditions.

The “opposition” committee had issued a statement earlier declaring their desire to meet face to face with the regime committee, while the regime committee chaired by Permanent Representative for the UN Bashar Jafar is not in favor of such an arrangement.

The meetings are held without press inclusion and UN Special Envoy for Syria De Mistura is expected to touch upon the transitional administration, the constitution, elections and the fight against terror.

This round of talks started on November 28 and will continue next week.