From VOA Learning English, this is In the News.
这里是美国之音慢速英语新闻报道。
International efforts to bring an end to the conflict in Syria got off to a bad start on Friday. Talks between the Syrian government and the opposition coalition opened in Geneva, Switzerland. But the two sides refused to hold direct negotiations.
周五，国际社会制止叙利亚冲突的努力开局不利。叙利亚政府与反对派联盟之间的谈判在瑞士日内瓦展开，但双方拒绝举行直接谈判。
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moualem is leading the government delegation. He announced he would leave if the talks do not get serious by Saturday. At the same time, a leader of the opposition delegation rejected the idea of face-to-face negotiations. Badr Jamous said there will be no direct talks until the government team accepts what is called the Geneva 1 communique. That document is supposed to be the starting point for the talks.
叙利亚外长瓦利德·穆阿利姆（Walid Muallem）率领着政府代表团。他宣布，如果到周六谈判还未能认真进行，他将退出这次谈判。与此同时，反对派代表团负责人之一的瓦利德·亚穆斯（Badr Jamous）拒绝了面对面谈判的意见。他表示在政府代表团接受所谓的日内瓦1号公报之前，不会进行直接谈判。这份文件被认为是谈判的起点。
The Geneva 1 communique calls for the establishment of a temporary government in Syria. The opposition and its allies say that means Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must leave office. The president and his allies disagree.
日内瓦1号公报呼吁建立叙利亚临时政府。反对派及其盟友表示，这意味着叙利亚总统巴沙尔·阿萨德（Bashar al-Assad）必须下台。阿萨德总统及其盟友不同意这点。
The United Nations and Arab League diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi is taking part in the talks between the government and the opposition. He met with the two sides separately on Friday. The diplomat had predicted that this kind of dispute might delay the talks. But he expressed hope that he could get the two delegations to sit down together. Late Friday, Mr. Brahimi said the talks will continue on Saturday, in his words, "in the same room."
联合国和阿拉伯国家联盟外交官拉赫达尔·卜拉希米（Lakhdar Brahimi）参与了叙利亚政府和反对派之间的谈判。上周五他分别会见了双方。卜拉希米曾预言这种争议可能会拖延谈判。但他表示，希望自己能让双方代表坐到一起。这个周五，卜拉希米先生表示，谈判将在周六继续进行，用他的话来说，“在同一个房间”内进行。
Observers had predicted such difficulties. On Wednesday, the Syrian foreign minister and opposition leader made conflicting statements at an international conference in nearby Montreux, Switzerland.
观察人士曾预言过这些困难。周三，叙利亚外长和反对派领导人在附近的瑞士蒙特勒市的一次国际会议上发表了互相冲突的宣言。
David Butter is a Syria expert with London's Chatham House. He sees little hope of progress during the current talks.
戴维·巴特尔（David Butter）是伦敦查塔姆研究所的一位叙利亚问题专家。他认为目前谈判进展希望不大。
"Both Syrian sides have got very different objectives going into it. And also, it's in a context where you can't really see either party to the internal conflict actually having any sort of decisive advantage, which would be the basis of some sort of bargaining process."
他说，“叙利亚双方都有非常不同的目标。在这种背景下，任何一方在内部冲突上实际上都没有任何形式的决定性优势，这将是某种讨价还价的过程。”
The distrust is making it difficult for the negotiations to move forward.
不信任使得谈判难以继续向前。
The UN says more than nine million Syrians urgently need aid and many of them cannot be reached because of the fighting. The three-year long Syrian conflict has killed an estimated 100 thousand people.
联合国表示，超过9百万叙利亚人急需援助，而因为战争他们中很多人无法获得。三年之久的叙利亚冲突造成了约10万人死亡。
For weeks, diplomats have been preparing for the talks in Switzerland. Last Sunday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon invited Iran to take part in the one-day meeting at Montreux. But the Syrian National Coalition, threatened to boycott the talks if they included Iran. The United States said the only way Iran could take part was by supporting the establishment of a temporary government in Syria with full executive powers. This was an idea presented in the "Geneva 1 Communique". But, Iran has refused to say it supports the communique.
几个星期以来，外交官们一直在准备这次瑞士的谈判。上周日，联合国秘书长潘基文邀请伊朗参加在蒙特勒举行的为期一天的会议。但叙利亚全国联盟威胁如果包括伊朗就要抵制会谈。美国表示，伊朗可能参加会谈的唯一途径是支持建立充分行政权力的叙利亚临时政府。这是日内瓦一号公报提出的意见。但伊朗拒绝表示自己支持该公报。
That forced Mr. Ban's spokesman to announce that Iran would not be attending the meeting in Montreux, nor the talks in Geneva.
这迫使潘基文先生的发言人宣布，伊朗将不会出席蒙特勒的会议，也不会参与日内瓦的谈判。(51VOA.COM对本文翻译保留全部权利，未经授权请勿转载，违者必究！)