MUNICH/BEIRUT: The United Nations and other parties to Syrian peace efforts Sunday softened any expectations of a major breakthrough at U.N.-led talks in Geneva next week, with U.S. policy on the crisis in disarray and its ties with Russia unclear.

U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura told the Munich Security Conference the lack of a clear U.S. position made resolving the complex issues of the six-year civil war far more complicated than his earlier mediation efforts for Iraq and Afghanistan.

“I can’t tell you [if it will succeed], but we have to push with the momentum. Even a cease-fire cannot hold too long if there is no political [solution],” he said, referring to the shaky cease-fire brokered by Russia and Turkey in the Kazakh capital Astana.

Questions abound over Washington’s approach to ending the war, even after the first international foray by members of U.S. President Donald Trump’s foreign policy team. It remains unclear if Trump will make good his promise to build closer ties to Russia, especially in the fight against Daesh (ISIS).

“One thing I’m missing at the moment ... is a clear U.S. strategy,” de Mistura told delegates. “Where are the United States [on a political solution]? I can’t tell you, because I don’t know.”

The U.N.-led intra-Syrian talks will resume in Geneva Thursday after de Mistura broke them off almost nine months ago following several rounds that led ultimately to an escalation of violence.

President Bashar Assad told French media last week that he deemed all those fighting him to be terrorists, signaling that the government delegation is likely to remain steadfast in the Geneva talks.

U.S. officials have ruled out cooperating with Russia militarily until it has persuaded Damascus to take a broader view, European diplomats said last week.

De Mistura said the talks would focus on a new constitution, free and fair elections administered under supervision of the U.N., and transparent and accountable governance.

Several delegates questioned him on why the U.N. was no longer using the phrase “political transition” to describe the goals of the talks. The opposition considers the term to mean a removal of Assad or at least an erosion of his powers.

De Mistura did not answer directly, but said he remained focused on U.N. Security Council resolution 2254, with its focus on governance, a new constitution and elections. Syrian National Coalition President Anas al-Abdah said it was clear that Assad had to go. “We cannot address the profound security threats ... while Assad remains in power,” he said.

The United States, Gulf Arab states and Turkey back rebel forces but the situation is complicated by the role of hardline Islamist factions, including Daesh in the anti-Assad movement opposed by Washington and Moscow.

U.S. envoy Brett McGurk said the administration was doing a full review of its Syria policy that is due to be completed in the coming weeks, but cautioned against setting expectations too high.

“I don’t think the U.S. will come in with a one-size fits all solution because there isn’t one,” McGurk told delegates to the annual security conference.

McGurk said Washington was focused heavily on liberating Raqqa from Daesh control, adopting Trump’s “America First” theme.

Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, called for urgent efforts by other states, warning that the Syrian government could repeat brutal tactics seen in the siege of Aleppo.

“God help the Syrian people if we are waiting for Donald Trump to provide the solution,” he said. “It is incumbent on all of us to step forward while the U.S. is in disarray.”

On the ground, Syrian government forces fired rockets at a rebel-held area on Damascus’s outskirts Sunday, pressing an attack that began the day before and has killed 16 people, a Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Sources said it was the biggest attack on the Qaboun area, to the city’s northeast, in at least two years.

A government sniper killed one person in the area Saturday and rockets hit a cemetery on Qaboun’s outskirts, a medical worker, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.

The Observatory said 16 people had died in the violence around Qaboun since Saturday, the highest death toll from fighting there for over two years.

The medical worker in Eastern Ghouta said at least 13 people had died. He said he could hear explosions coming from Qaboun early Sunday.

In the southern province of Deraa, government and Russian warplanes stepped up their bombardment of rebel-held areas, carrying out at least 70 airstrikes Friday and Saturday, on Deraa city and towns to the east, the Observatory reported.

At least four people were killed in the town of Umm al-Mayadin, and one person in Busra al-Sham, it said.