Syria talks may collapse over Assad’s future

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mouallem jarbaSyrian peace talks are on the verge of collapse with the Syrian government threatening to leave Switzerland after the opposition refused to meet face-to-face until it agreed to the creation of a transitional government.

The so-called Geneva II talks got under way on Friday and were due to bring together representatives from President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and the main opposition bloc for the first time.

However, the opposition demanded the government endorse the Geneva communique of June 30, 2012, which calls for a transitional governing body to be established, before direct talks began.

That led the Syrian foreign minister, Walid al-Muallem, to say: “If no serious work sessions are held by [Saturday], the official Syrian delegation will leave Geneva due to the other side’s lack of seriousness or preparedness.”

The UN-Arab League envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, met the government representatives separately before the threat to leave was announced.

Alessandra Velluci, a UN spokeswoman, said: “There are no Syrian-Syrian talks at the moment. I cannot tell you anything about what will happen in the next few days.”

No agreement

The government says it will not discuss removing Assad, while the opposition says it will not stay unless Assad’s removal is the basis for talks. One of the government delegates said on Friday that Assad would remain president until the next election, when anyone could run for election.

In his remarks on Thursday, Ahmed Jarba, head of the Syrian National Coalition, said the international community now realised that Assad could not stay in power.

“We have started to look into the future without him. Assad and all of his regime is in the past now. Nobody should have any doubt that the head of the regime is finished. This regime is dead,” Jarba said.

He said the negotiations would be long and difficult, and would look at all the “core issues” as a package deal, including the creation of a transitional governing body.

“This is the basis of our negotiations and we will demand it,” he said.

Syria government officials, who left talks with a UN envoy on Thursday evening without making any statement, have insisted that Assad is not going anywhere.

Many difficulties

Few expect the peace talks to result in a breakthrough to end the war, since Sunni religious fighters who disdain the Western and Arab-backed opposition are not present at the talks, and nor is Iran, Assad’s main regional backer.

Officials hope they can salvage the process by starting with more modest, practical measures to ease the plight of millions of people on the ground, especially in areas cut off from international aid.

More than 130,000 people are believed to have been killed in the fighting, nearly a third of Syria’s 22 million people have been driven from their homes, and half are in need of international aid, including hundreds of thousands in areas cut off by fighting.

Against this backdrop, the UN humanitarian chief has urged the Syrian delegations to remember their people and try to reach local ceasefires to allow vital food and medicines to reach millions of civilians in dire needs.

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9 responses to “Syria talks may collapse over Assad’s future”

  1. 5thDrawer Avatar

    If everyone has their way, Assad won’t have a future. THEN they can all get down to the business of making a country function. Right? Or, we could hope, maybe even 2 countries.

    1. We have seen how Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia, Mali, Pakistan, etc…. are functioning and business is booming…..

      1. The real lebanese Avatar
        The real lebanese

        Right. Amd how is the tourism with Assad in power. Countries with dictators never do to well in the tourism section.

        1. A lot of visitors flocked to Syria before the so called revolution, security ranked in the upper 25 countries of the world, you are right, now it is down to ZERO and it will get down to subzero if God forbid those reach power……

          1. The real lebanese Avatar
            The real lebanese

            I know it had a tourist sector, but it didnt last because the people in Syria learned to stop being puppets to Assad. He didn’t think Syria would be his forever, did he?

            And top 25 is a little too high…. Lol.

          2. 5thDrawer Avatar

            I THINK I WOULD CONSIDER ⅓ OF 22 MILLION GOING ELSEWHERE A ‘SUB-ZERO’ TOURIST FACTOR.
            On the other hand, perhaps you can use that to say Lebanon is really ‘up’ in tourism this year … it’s one way to present a bold ‘face’. :-)))))

          3. wargame1 Avatar

            Lets talk about the current situation and some possible future situation. The Taliban are there alive and well. The occupation forces are going to withdraw. Falluja boys are back in business and ready to drive the terrorist/Tourist army of Maliki. The rebel in Syria are doing good and I dont think Assad Iran and the Alawites will ever rule Syria again. The situation will further change as you see Hezbushaitan in Lebanon are asking for trouble and I believe the Syrian rebel will send tourist to visit the Hezbushaitan cave. Things are really getting out of hand.

      2. 5thDrawer Avatar

        Can’t believe ‘tourists’ are really THAT desperate.
        You probably have ‘gov’t’ optimistic numbers I suppose.
        Or all the ‘expats’ are flying in some loose change.
        Japan I might believe … How’s the Sushi ?? :-))))

    2. Can I just ask who is this everyone you speak of.

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