The Syrian Opposition Coalition – the main opposition group backed by the West in the now almost three year old conflict – agreed yesterday to join troubled and oft-delayed peace talks to be held in Geneva. They just have a couple of conditions:
Although the Syrian Opposition Coalition’s announcement was hailed by Secretary of State John F. Kerry as an important step, one of its demands is that President Bashar al-Assad not play any role in a transitional government… The coalition also demanded the release of political prisoners and the easing of tight blockades on rebel-held areas. The substance of the statement, voted on early Monday by a majority of the fractious body, is not new but gives the opposition an official and unified position ahead of talks, relieving pressure from the international community.
It is unlikely that the Bashar al-Assad regime – which, with critical help from Iran and its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah, has in recent months eroded years of rebel gains – will agree to those demands.
The conference had originally been planned for November – Secretary of State John Kerry had called for an “urgent” peace conference – but was then bumped back to December. Then as now rebels had conditioned talks on Assad stepping down.
Iran’s participation has become another contentious issue. Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nation’s top envoy to Syria, briefed reporters last week on plans to put together the talks, emphasizing that though the global powers “still striving” to hold a conference before the end of the year, Washington and Moscow had failed to reach an agreement on the participation of Assad’s ally Iran. For their part Gulf states, which have supported rebels seeking the Assad regime’s overthrow, have taken aim at the run-up to the so-called Geneva II talks and emphasized that negotiations could not be “unconditional” and “shouldn’t just go on indefinitely.”
The diplomatic framework designed to solve a smaller dimension of the Syrian conflict – the Assad regime’s possession and use of chemical weapons – has also in recent days frayed. The guidelines of the agreement to dismantle the non-conventional arsenal had specified that they relief “on the cooperation and goodwill of Russia and Syria.” That goodwill has apparently not always been forthcoming.
CNN reported las week that U.S. officials were evaluating classified documents showing that Damascus had hidden some of its chemical weapons. The effect would be to leave the Assad regime with “a secret cache” that would slip through the international agreement to destroy the country’s stockpile.
The implication would be that a rogue regime lied about its rogue activities.
[Photo: FreedomHouse / Flickr]