Syria peace talks end in rancor
GENEVA — Syrian government and opposition teams ended their first attempt at peace talks Friday with recriminations and uncertainty over whether they would even return for more faceto-face negotiations.
In a week of talks, they failed to make headway toward political compromise or action that could alleviate suffering the nearly 3-year-old civil war has inflicted.
“We haven’t made any progress to speak of,” U.N. mediator Lakhdar Brahimi said after a final round of talks with both delegations. He expressed hope that they had at least identified sufficient common ground to resume discussions at a later date.
Mr. Brahimi said he had proposed that the talks reconvene Feb. 10 in Geneva but left some doubt whether the Syrian government had accepted. “They didn’t tell me that they are thinking of not coming. On the contrary, they said that they would come, but they needed to check with their capital,” he said.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem, speaking to reporters soon afterward, was noncommittal. He did not rule out returning for another round, but said the decision would be made by President Bashar Assad after hearing the delegation’s report and in discussion with his Cabinet.
That ambiguous outcome was as close to a tangible result as Mr. Brahimi could identify after sometimes-acrimonious talks that began in the lakeside town of Montreux with a government denunciation of the opposition as terrorists. The final day of talks was punctuated by a volley of hostile comment from both sides, while pro-government demonstrators gathered below the canopy of a giant Syrian flag outside the U.N. offices where the meetings were held.
In between, the talks failed to make progress on efforts to send humanitarian aid into the besieged Old City of Homs and on prisoner releases. Even the basic purpose of the talks — discussion of a transitional government — was a matter of dispute and differing interpretations. “The gaps between the sides remain wide; there is no use pretending otherwise,” Mr. Brahimi said.
The top U.N. relief official, Valerie Amos, made clear in a statement that she blamed government obstruction for preventing U.N. teams from gaining access to some areas of acute need. “The situation is totally unacceptable,” she said.
Striving to find some positive outcome from the process, Mr. Brahimi said government and opposition delegations had at least become used to sitting in the same room and listening to each other. There had even been moments when one side had acknowledged the point of view and concerns of the other. “Progress is very slow indeed, but the sides have engaged in an acceptable manner. This is a modest beginning on which we can build,” he said.
Each side continued to blame the other for carnage that by some estimates has killed more than 130,000 and driven more than 6 million from their homes.
Mr. Moallem cited two causes for the lack of results: what he called the opposition delegation’s immaturity, and Western aid to rebel groups that call themselves moderate. “There is no moderate opposition; there is only terrorist organizations,” he said.
With the end of the first round of talks, attention was already turning to preparations for a second round. Mr. Brahimi was due to leave for Munich within hours to meet with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and then with John Kerry, U.S. Secretary of State, and Russia Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov.