Syrian regime and rebels
Kazakhstan peace talks a sign of Russia’s growing influence
Russian-backed peace talks aimed at ending the Syrian war brought rebels and the Syrian Government face to face for the first time yesterday, marking the launch of a new role for Russian President Vladimir Putin as a Middle East power broker.
There was no indication that any progress was made on the first day of talks, taking place in a conference room in the Turkish-owned Rixos Hotel in Astana, the capital of the central Asian nation of Kazakhstan. The second day of talks started last night NZT.
There is cautious optimism, however, that the talks may go further than previous failed efforts because of the evolving role of Russia, a critical political and military backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
In the past, Moscow frequently acted as a spoiler when the US was driving the diplomacy on Syria, but it is now embracing a role as mediator between Assad’s Government and moderate rebels once denounced by Russian officials as terrorists.
Turkey and Iran are co-sponsors of the talks, but it is Moscow that has thrown its prestige behind the effort to bring the warring factions together, leaving little doubt that this is a Russian-led process, diplomats said. The US, meanwhile, has been relegated to observer status and has not been a party to the intensive negotiations preceding the talks.
Even the choice of location spoke to the emerging Russian role. Astana, a remote and snowbound city in Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic, lies close to the Russian border and nearly 10,000km from Washington.
“We’re in uncharted territory,” said Noah Bonsey, a senior analyst for the International Crisis Group, who was in Astana. “We’re here in Russia’s back yard, and the ball is in their court.”
In an early success for Moscow’s diplomacy, representatives of Assad and the Syrian rebels seeking to over-