Syria talks yield a narrow deal

Associated Press

GENEVA

Two days of face-to-face peace talks yielded a narrow and tentative agreement Sunday for women and children trapped in a besieged Syrian city, and the government said President Bashar Assad had no intention of giving up “the keys to Damascus.”

With little progress to show after months of international pressure for the talks in Geneva, U.N. mediator Lakhdar Brahimi still hoped to broker an end to Syria’s civil war.

The talks have yet to touch upon the issue of a possible transitional government — their purpose, according to terms laid out when they were first conceived. The government was unequivocal that Assad’s future was assured in the country led by his family since 1970.