The UN envoy for Syria has renewed a call for elections in the war-torn country, proposing that a vote should be held in 18 months' time. Staffan de Mistura's call on Friday for elections in September 2017 came ahead of the fifth anniversary of the conflict on Monday, which is also when a fresh round of peace talks in Geneva are scheduled to begin. "New elections ... should be held 18 months from the start of talks, that is from March 14," de Mistura told Russia's RIA Novosti state news agency, in comments translated into Russian. World leaders have called for elections for some time,...
