An excerpt from,
"Brahimi saves his energy for Geneva III" by Jean Aziz, Al-Monitor, January 27, 2014:
A senior Arab diplomat who followed the Geneva II conference in
its first days said that the current impasse was evident from the
outset, and that the way out was clear to the conference’s broker,
Algerian diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi.
The diplomat, who left the Swiss city of Montreux two days after the conference opened on Jan. 22, told Al-Monitor
that Brahimi was never deluded about the talks' prospects. Before the
conference began, Brahimi had conducted many contacts with the Syrian
forces involved as well as with the foreign powers sponsoring the
conference and those supporting any of the parties to the Syrian
conflict. So Brahimi went to Montreux fully aware of what awaited him.
He knew that the two sides’ working papers didn’t intersect on any of
the basic points.
The Syrian opposition is focused on a single point in the Geneva I
communiqué: the formation of a transitional government with full
executive powers. The Syrian opposition came to Switzerland in order to
implement the practical steps to form such a government and work out a
timeframe for it. Some in the opposition delegation even envisioned a
one-year time table for the transfer of all powers, the writing of a new
constitution and the holding of parliamentary and presidential
elections. The diplomat heard some opposition members express confidence
that President Bashar al-Assad will have no influence on the
developments once his presidential term ends in June.
In contrast, the diplomat said, the official Syrian delegation had a
completely different reading of the Geneva I communiqué. The regime
representatives hold that to secure Syrian leadership for the peace
process, the priority must be to stop outside interference and prevent
the transfer of arms, ammunition and fighters to Syria — in other words,
turn Geneva II into an international coalition against terrorism in
Syria. After that, the Syrians will then decide the fate of
their regime, policies and people. This means that the official
delegation rejects Assad’s exclusion from a future solution.
An excerpt from,
"Syria peace talks failure spurs U.S.-Russia recriminations" by Arshad Mohammed and Steve Gutterman, Reuters, February 17, 2014:
The United States accused Damascus on Monday of paralyzing Geneva peace negotiations, while Russia denied that and said nations backing Syrian rebels were leaning toward
trying to end the civil war on the battlefield rather than in talks.
A second round of
talks in Geneva broke up on Saturday with chief mediator Lakhdar Brahimi
lamenting a failure to advance much beyond agreement on an agenda for a
third round later.
Anybody who seeks a military victory in this war = delusional, suicidal, stupid.
The US, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Turkey, Iran, and Israel all need to check their national egos at the door at the Geneva III conference, and do what is right for the Syrian people and society.
