Geneva talks near collapse

Syrian govt delegation threatens to go home after last-minute demand

Syria's first peace talks teetered near collapse even before beginning on Friday, with the opposition refusing to meet the Syrian government delegation and the government threatening to bring its team home.

The opposition said it would not meet the government delegation unless it first agreed to a protocol calling for a transitional administration.

The government rejected the demand and said its negotiators would return home unless serious talks begin within a day.

"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," Syrian television quoted Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem as saying.

Friday was meant to be the first time in three years of war that the Syrian government and its foes would talk face to face.

But plans were ditched at the last minute after the opposition said the government delegation must first agree to a 2012 protocol, known as Geneva 1, that calls for an interim government to oversee a transition to a new political order.

"We have explicitly demanded a written commitment from the regime delegation to accept Geneva 1. Otherwise there will be no direct negotiations," opposition delegate Haitham al-Maleh said.

The Syrian government delegation met UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi separately, and said it rejected the opposition demand: "No, we will not accept it," said Information Minister Omran Zoabi.

Brahimi, who met the government team for an hour, was due to talk to the opposition delegation separately later on Friday.

The opposition says it has come to discuss a transition that will remove Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from power. The government says it is there only to talk about fighting terrorism - the word it uses for its enemies - and that no one can force Assad to go.

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

Even before the announcement that the direct talks were cancelled, the outlook was dim.

"The objective is for the first round of talks to last until next Friday, but expectations are so low we'll see how things develop day by day," a Western diplomat said.

"Every day that they talk is a little step forward."

Brahimi has indicated that his aim is to start by seeking practical steps, like local ceasefires, prisoner releases and access for international aid deliveries, before embarking on the tougher political negotiations. But even those narrow aims would fail if the delegations go home.

Syria's civil war has already killed at least 130,000 people, driven up to a third of the country's 22 million people from their homes and made half of the population dependent on aid, including hundreds of thousands cut off by fighting.

Reuters

(China Daily 01/25/2014 page8)