The Associated Press reported yesterday that renewed peace talks between Syria’s Bashar al-Assad regime and opposition groups stumbled almost as soon as they began on Monday, with each side blaming the other for a spate of violence that has seen hundreds killed in just the last few days. Both Damascus and extremist rebel elements have been linked to recent massacres:

“The negotiations cannot continue while the regime is stepping up its violence against the Syrian people,” opposition spokesman Louay Safi told reporters following a 90-minute meeting with Brahimi. “It is not acceptable that the regime will send its own delegation to talk peace while it is killing our people in Syria.”

The opposition insists the talks’ aim is to agree on a transitional governing body that would replace President Bashar Assad. The government delegation says that cannot happen before there is a halt to violence by “terrorists,” a term authorities use to refer to the rebels fighting to topple Assad.

Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said the issue of Assad stepping down was not on the agenda. “Please tell those who dream of wasting our time here in such a discussion to stop it,” he told a reporter.

The latest attacks by forces loyal to Assad – which reportedly included shelling Homs even as it was in the midst of a three-day U.N.-brokered ceasefire – came after the U.S. condemned mass casualty regime attacks conducted in and around Aleppo last week.

Meanwhile, Sunni jihadists over the weekend overran an Alawite village and reportedly killed at least 40 people, about a week after Secretary of State John Kerry gave journalists statements suggesting that Washington was failing to sufficiently bolster moderate rebels against extremists. France on Monday revealed that it will push the United Nations Security Council to demand that humanitarian corridors are created between Syrian cities:

Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said the resolution represented an attempt to accelerate moves aimed at delivering urgently-needed medical and food supplies.

“It is absolutely scandalous that we have been discussing this for some time but the people are still starving,” Fabius said. “That is why, along with other countries, we want to propose a resolution on these lines.”

The move may be viewed in some quarters as a token gesture given recent violence.

[Photo: AssociatedPress / YouTube ]