Sitting face to face at a U-shaped table and buffered by a UN mediator, Syria's government and the Western-backed opposition trying to overthrow President Bashar Assad avoided directly touching on the war dividing them, focusing Saturday on the relatively safe topic of humanitarian aid.
Their movements choreographed, they entered by separate doors and said they would speak only to the mediator, Lakhdar Brahimi, and not to each other.
The peace conference intended to forge a path out of the civil war that has killed 130,000 people has been on the verge of collapse since it was first conceived 18 months ago. Today, the talks avoided the main issue of Assad's future, with both sides appearing to soften their approach after days of escalating rhetoric.
The opposition Syrian National Coalition agreed to the Geneva talks only if the focus was on an end to the Assad dynasty, while the Damascus contingent zeroed in on fighting terrorism, disputing any claims that it had agreed to the talks' stated goal of a transitional government.
Under intense international pressure to talk, and prodded by a famously patient mediator, the antagonists agreed Saturday to start with humanitarian aid.
Louay Safi, of the coalition, described the talks as "consultations, it's not negotiations."
"It was not easy for us to sit with the delegation that represents the killers in Damascus, but we did it for the sake of the Syrian people and for the sake of the Syrian children," said Anas al-Abdeh, who was among the coalition's representatives.
He said everyone remained calm during a first half-hour meeting at which only Brahimi spoke.
Diplomats have said even getting them to the same table can be considered an accomplishment three years into the uprising that has killed 130,000 people.
Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi said right before the talks started there was still an "enormous gap" in how the two sides interpreted a transitional government.
"Those who talk about President Bashar Assad are talking about removing the man who is leading the war against terrorism," he said.
