DAMASCUS, Syria — Islamic State militants recaptured a vital border crossing in northern Syria and shot down a government warplane in the country’s west Monday as the U.N.’s special envoy urged the warring parties to respect a fragile cease-fire ahead of peace talks set to resume in Geneva this week.
U.N. Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura’s plea came amid stepped up fighting around the northern city of Aleppo, Syria’s largest, and elsewhere in the country’s northern and western provinces.
He spoke after meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem in Damascus in preparation for the talks, set to begin Wednesday in Geneva between the government and an umbrella opposition coalition backed by the U.S., Saudi Arabia and other Western powers.
De Mistura said he emphasized the importance “of protecting and maintaining and supporting the cessation of hostilities,” describing it as fragile and stressing that all sides “need to make sure that it continues to be sustained.”
The U.N. envoy said the talks would focus on a political transition for Syria, where the civil war, now in its sixth year, has killed 250,000 people and displaced half the country’s pre-war population of 23 million people. About 4 million people have fled the country.
“We will be focusing in particular on political transition, on governance and constitutional principles,” de Mistura said. “We hope and plan to make them constructive … and concrete.”
Al-Moallem called for a dialogue “without preconditions,” a reference to opposition demands that President Bashar Assad step down and be excluded from any transitional government.
He said the government delegation would arrive Friday, two days after parliamentary elections are to be held in Syria.
Islamic State militants shot down a Syrian warplane during violent clashes Monday west of Damascus, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. It said the plane was shot down in the vicinity of the Dumayr Air Base in the eastern Qalamoun mountains, which straddle the border with Lebanon.
Earlier Monday, Islamic State militants captured the strategic town of al-Rai on Syria’s border with Turkey after intense fighting, the Observatory said. The town serves as the Islamic State group’s access point to supply lines and also sits along the road to the Islamic State stronghold in Aleppo province.
The latest Islamic State gains show the group is still capable of launching counterattacks as it comes under pressure on different fronts in Iraq and Syria.
