Obama Says Assad Must Go for Peace in Syria as Draft U.N. Resolution Calls for January Talks
Naharnet/Agencies/December 18/15/World powers seeking to end Syria’s nearly five-year war agreed Friday on a draft U.N. resolution that calls for formal peace talks and a ceasefire to be launched in early January. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was to chair a meeting of the U.N. Security Council at 4 pm (2100 GMT) to vote on the measure following a meeting of the 17 foreign ministers on the Syria crisis. The United States, Russia and the other three permanent Security Council members – France, Britain and China — had sought U.N. endorsement to highlight international unity on the way forward in Syria. The draft text, obtained by AFP, states that the “only sustainable solution to the current crisis in Syria is through an inclusive and Syrian-led political process that meets the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people.” The measure draws heavily on statements agreed during previous talks in Geneva and Vienna by calling for an “inclusive transitional governing body with full executive powers” in Syria. It asks the United Nations to bring the Syrian government and the opposition to the table for formal negotiations on a political transition “with a target of early January 2016.”
Assad’s fate
The draft resolution, however, does not touch on one of the most contentious issues in the peace effort: the fate of Syrian leader Bashar Assad. Ahead of the council meeting, U.S. President Barack Obama reaffirmed the U.S. stance that Assad must leave power during his Washington year-end news conference.
“I think that Assad is going to have to leave in order for the country to stop the blood(shed), for all the parties involved to be able to move forward in a nonsectarian way,” Obama said. “He has lost legitimacy in the eyes of the country.”Obama said Assad’s remaining in power, after having chosen to “slaughter” his people rather than pursue an inclusive political transition, “is not feasible.””As a consequence, our view has been that you cannot bring peace to Syria, you cannot get an end to the civil war unless you have a government that it is recognized as legitimate by a majority of that country. It will not happen,” he said. He said Kerry’s efforts in New York offered “an opportunity, not to turn back the clock — it’s going to be difficult to completely overcome the devastation that’s happened in Syria already — but to find a political transition that maintains the Syrian state, that recognizes a bunch of stakeholders inside of Syria and hopefully to initiate a ceasefire.” He said such a ceasefire “won’t be perfect, but allows all the parties to turn on what should be our number one focus and that is destroying Daesh and its allies in the region.”Daesh is an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group, the jihadist movement that now controls large parts of Syria and Iraq, and claimed responsibility for the terror attacks in Paris November 13.
More than 250,000 people have died since Syria’s conflict erupted in March 2011, and millions more have fled their homes. The New York talks were the first meeting of the so-called International Syria Support Group since Saudi Arabia gathered a coalition of Syria rebel groups to form an opposition negotiating team. Jordan’s foreign minister said he was finalizing a list of terrorist groups in Syria that will be excluded from the talks, along with the blacklisted Islamic State group and the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front. “The initial work has been done. Now I think that there will be follow-up meetings,” said Nasser Judeh, adding that countries had submitted between 10 and 20 names each. Under the Vienna process, there would be a six-month political transition period once a ceasefire began — but the rebels have demanded that Assad step down immediately.
Russia has dismissed this idea and Kerry admitted this week in Moscow that it was a “non-starter.”Kerry traveled to Moscow this week to assure the Syrian leader’s key ally Russian President Vladimir Putin that Washington is not seeking “regime change” in Syria.In New York, the top U.S. diplomat sought to reassure Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir that the United States is not going soft on Assad.
Unrealistic timetable
The diplomatic balancing act aims to keep both Moscow and Riyadh on board as big powers aim to build momentum for peace talks and a ceasefire. Syria’s main opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, said however that achieving a ceasefire by January 1 was unrealistic and demanded that Russia halt air strikes as part of that truce. Najib Ghadbian, the SNC’s envoy to the United Nations, said opposition groups need “a month or so” to prepare for political talks that would begin in tandem with a ceasefire. On the eve of U.N. talks, Assad warned in an interview with Dutch television that misguided efforts to bring about regime change would make the conflict “drag on.” Under a deal struck last month in Vienna, government and rebel negotiators would have six months to form a transitional government and 18 months to organize national elections. Assad, in his interview with Dutch television, turned sarcastic when asked whether he was comforted that Washington’s stance on his departure was seemingly softening. “I was packing my luggage. I had to leave, but now I can stay,” he said. Aside from the hosts, the New York meeting brought together Britain, the UAE, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Lebanon, Jordan, China, Egypt, Germany, France, Iran, Iraq and Italy.The European Union, the Organization of the Islamic Conference and the Arab League were also represented.
World Powers Bring Syria Peace Plan to U.N.
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/December 18/15/The world powers most implicated in Syria’s civil war met Friday to renew efforts to bind Bashar Assad’s regime and its rebel foes into a ceasefire and peace talks. Convened by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura, 17 foreign ministers gathered at a New York hotel. Later, they were to head across the city to the United Nations and seek the support of the Security Council for their plan to achieve a political settlement to the almost five-year civil war. The New York talks are the first meeting of the International Syria Support Group since Saudi Arabia gathered a coalition of Syria rebel groups to form an opposition negotiating team. If the ministers give their support to Saudi Arabia’s planned rebel delegation, pressure will mount on Russia to bring its ally Assad to the table for talks on a political transition.
“Here in New York we will be seeking to harmonize as much as possible the opposition position with what we discussed in Vienna,” German Foreign Minister Frank Walter-Steinmeier said. Under the Vienna process agreed last month, there would be a six month political transition period once a ceasefire began — but the rebels have demanded that Assad step down immediately. Russia has dismissed this idea and Kerry admitted this week in Moscow that it was a “non-starter.”
“The most important task is to move forward towards a real ceasefire,” Steinmeier added, in a broadcast by his ministry. Aside from the hosts, the ISSG meeting brought together Britain, the UAE, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Lebanon, Jordan, China, Egypt, Germany, France, Iran, Iraq and Italy.
The European Union, the Organization of the Islamic Conference and the Arab League were also represented. Kerry traveled to Moscow this week to assure the Syrian leader’s key ally Russian President Vladimir Putin that Washington is not seeking “regime change” in Syria. And in New York, the top US diplomat has sought to reassure Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir that the United States is not going soft on the Syrian strongman. The high-stakes diplomatic balancing act aims to keep both Moscow and Riyadh on board as the ISSG aims to build momentum for peace talks and a ceasefire to start as early as January 1. On the eve of U.N. talks, Assad warned in an interview with Dutch television that misguided efforts to bring about regime change would make the conflict “drag on.” He argued that only backers Russia and Iran — not the West — were ready to resolve his country’s nearly five-year conflict. If a ceasefire can be reached in Syria’s four-and-a-half-year-old civil war, then Syrian troops, Russia and a US-led coalition can focus their fire on the hardline jihadist Islamic State group. Under a deal struck last month in Vienna, government and rebel negotiators would have six months to form a transitional government and 18 months to organize national elections.
Questions remain
But several questions still hang over the process. Will Assad and his foreign backers Russia and Iran agree to sit down with rebel groups they routinely denounce as “terrorists”? And, will the rebels and their foreign backers countenance talks with a regime that has slaughtered thousands of its own citizens with barrel bombs and poison gas? Even if a ceasefire is possible, who would monitor it? And who would lead the fight against the IS group and others, such as al-Qaida’s al-Nusra Front, left outside of the peace process? U.S. diplomats concede that the plan is ambitious and that success is not certain, but they hope that Russia and Saudi Arabia will cajole their rival Syrian allies to the table. President Vladimir Putin, they reason, will not want to see the Russian forces he sent to Syria to shore up Assad’s beleaguered regime bogged down in an open-ended conflict.Meanwhile, the threat of Islamic State group attacks and waves of Syrian war refugees spilling out from Syria into the Middle East and Europe has concentrated minds in other foreign capitals.
‘I was packing’
Assad, in his interview with Dutch television, turned sarcastic when asked whether he was comforted that Washington’s stance on his departure was seemingly softening. “I was packing my luggage, I had to leave, but now I can stay,” he said. More than 250,000 people have died since Syria’s conflict erupted in March 2011, and millions more have fled their homes. On Friday, British-based watchdog the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights alleged that a Russian air strike in support of Assad’s forces had killed 32 civilians in northern Syria.
