Photo: Members of the Syrian opposition meeting in a hotel in Istanbul. Source.
An excerpt from, "Syria Peace Hopes Dim Further as Opposition Rejects Moscow Talks" by Anne Barnard, NYT, January 13, 2015:
As the world focused last week on the attacks by Islamist extremists in Paris, hopes were fading for the latest effort to wind down the war in Syria, a conflict seen as driving radicalization among Muslims worldwide.
For months, Russia has been working to persuade government and opposition figures to attend preliminary talks in Moscow on Jan. 26 that are aimed at starting a new peace process. But in recent days, several leading opposition figures, apparently doubting Russia’s credibility as a mediator, said they would not attend, undermining the initiative.The exile Syrian political opposition, also known as the Istanbul Hotel opposition, have no political program, no future vision, and no principles of their own. And they also have no following in Syria. They do what the governments of the U.S., Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, France, England, and Turkey tell them to do. The new usurper regime in Ukraine is the same.
These opposition figures who read off foreign scripts that are prepared for them are not revolutionaries, patriots, and leaders. So for them to reject this olive branch from the current Syrian regime, which is by no means without guilt for the continued destruction of Syria, is one more example of their foolhardy arrogance.
But it's their loss. It's not like they're getting anywhere on the battlefield with the current approach. Plus, in a post-Assad political wasteland in Syria the demented and stupid terrorists in ISIS and their handlers will eliminate all the moderate Syrian opposition politicians anyway so their speeches and statements are irrelevant. They are pawns used by the U.S., Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and others to give the destruction of Syria a credible political face.
Syria is a meat grinder thanks to their idiocy and stubbornness. The only hope they have is for Washington to repeat the Iraq example from 12 years ago, and completely blow up the country with bombs, hitting both Assad and ISIS. They can delude themselves into thinking that would be a revolution, the liberation of their country, and a great achievement of the Arab Spring, but reality will have the last word.
