Face-to-face peace talks with the Syrian government and the coalition of rebels groups are to adjourn on Friday.  And so far, the United Nations’ chief mediator Lakhdar Brahimi has said he does not expect to achieve “anything substantive”.

Still, Brahimi said he was “not disappointed” and that “the ice is breaking slowly.”  Very slowly, apparently.  The UN and Syrian government are still negotiating on access for a humanitarian aid convoy into the besieged city of Homs, something that was announced as an alleged breakthrough earlier in the negotiations.

Where this week’s discussions were largely bogged down by disagreements of how to transition from the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, Friday’s final session will center on the time frame for the second round of talks.

Meanwhile, the process of destroying Syria’s chemical weapons is also going very slowly.  Damascus has given up less than five percent of its chemical weapons arsenal, according to a report from the Reuters news agency, and will miss next week's deadline to send all toxic agents abroad for destruction.

“All the indications are, and the secretary-general's report makes clear, that actually the regime has been sort of stalling on the implementation of the agreement,” said a senior western diplomat quoted by Reuters on the condition of anonymity.