SYRIA peace talks in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana quickly turned stormy yesterday with the government and insurgents trading verbal blows.

Proceedings had started promisingly, with the opposition sitting down at the same table as the Syrian delegation, something they refused to do in the Geneva talks last year.

But Syrian UN ambassador Bashar al-Jaafari condemned insurgent delegation leader Mohammed Alloush after the latter described the Syrian government as “terrorist” and called for its allies to be placed on the list of terrorist organisations, along with Isis and al-Qaida.

This includes Lebanon’s Hezbollah, a staunch supporter of Syria’s war against the fundamentalists.

“The presence of foreign militias invited by the regime, most notably the Lebanese Hezbollah and the Iraqi Hezbollah … contributes to the continuation of bloodshed and obstructs any opportunity for a ceasefire,” he said.

Mr Alloush, a political officer for the Salafist sectarian Army of Islam faction, one of the so-called moderate groups armed by the US and its allies, said Syrian civilians were subject to two forms of terrorism: “The terrorism of Bashar Assad or the terrorism of (Isis).”

But Mr Jaafari denounced the declaration by the “terrorist armed groups” as “provocative” and “insolent.”

Mr Alloush’s demand came in stark contrast to comments on Sunday by Yahya al-Aridi, spokesman for the Saudi-convened High Negotiations Committee (HNC), which includes the Army of Islam.

Mr Aridi said there was no longer any “context” for regime-change demands against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The two sides later retired to separate conference rooms for “contact talks” mediated by ceasefire brokers Russia and Turkey.

The talks are also complicated by the the HNC’s other main faction, Ahrar as-Sham, rejecting the ceasefire outright and maintaining its alliance with the al-Qaida affiliated Levant Conquest Front.

The US was represented only by ambassador to Kazakhstan George Krol due to the “immediate demands of the transition” in Washington, the US State Department said.

US senators have yet to approve President Donald Trump’s secretary of state-designate Rex Tillerson, who refused to call Syria’s fight a “war crime” at Senate hearings.

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