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Testy Exchange Sets Tone as Peace Talks Open on Syria
Syrian Peace Talks Open With Vitriol, as Official Rails at Rebels
(about 3 hours later)
MONTREUX, Switzerland — Friction and acrimony broke out almost immediately on Wednesday with the start of a long-delayed peace conference on Syria, punctuated by a testy exchange between the Syrian foreign minister and the leader of the United Nations, casting doubt on the prospects for easing hostilities or even opening up emergency aid corridors to help besieged civilians.
MONTREUX, Switzerland — From its early moments on Wednesday, the long-delayed peace conference on Syria was marked by acrimony when Syria’s foreign minister described Syrian rebels as “evil” and ignored appeals by Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, to avoid invective or even to yield the floor.
The conference of delegates representing some 30 countries in the lakeside Swiss city of Montreux, already troubled by last-minute diplomatic stumbles, was described by Secretary of State John Kerry as a test for the international community. But the meeting had barely begun when the atmosphere grew even more charged over divisions between the United States and Russia and especially among the Syrians themselves.
By the end of the day, the sense that the new peace talks were headed for trouble was compounded when the proceedings ended without any hint of progress toward imposing local cease-fires or opening humanitarian corridors for the delivery of food and medicine to besieged towns and cities.
The Syrian foreign minister, Walid al-Moallem, who led his country’s delegation, was openly defiant, calling Syrian insurgents evil and ignoring appeals by Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary-general, to avoid invective or even yield the floor as a bell rang signaling that he had exceeded the allotted time for his remarks.
In an evening news conference here, Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations, Bashar Jaafari, said that stopping terrorism, not sharing power, needed to be the priority when Syrian government officials sat down with the Syrian opposition on Friday to discuss a political solution to the bloody conflict, a stance that also appeared to promise more confrontation.
“You live in New York, I live in Syria,” Mr. Moallem snapped after Mr. Ban asked that he conclude his speech, which lasted more than 30 minutes.
Putting the best face on the meeting, Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters on Wednesday night that it was significant that senior diplomats from 40 countries and organizations had gathered in the lakeside Swiss city of Montreux, to initiate the conference. Mr. Kerry insisted that he had always known that the talks would be “tough” and described the conference as a “process,” which he implied could last for months or even years.
After Mr. Moallem finished Mr. Ban lamented that his injunction that participants take a constructive approach to the crisis “had been broken.”
Several Syrians also expressed hope that the conference signaled the start of a process in which Syrians might eventually overcome their differences.
Despite the lack of concrete progress, several Syrians expressed hope that the conference signaled the start of a process in which Syrians might eventually overcome their differences.
“It’s a historic moment,” said Ibrahim al-Hamidi, a veteran journalist for the Saudi-owned newspaper Al Hayat who is originally from the northern Syrian city of Idlib. “After three years of military struggle, when the opposition tried very hard to destroy the regime, and the regime tried very hard to crush the opposition, this is the first time the two delegations sit down in one room under U.N. auspices.”
“It’s a historic moment,” said Ibrahim al-Hamidi, a veteran journalist for the Saudi-owned Al Hayat newspaper, originally from the northern Syrian city of Idlib. “After three years of military struggle, when the opposition tried very hard to destroy the regime, and the regime tried very had to crush the opposition, this is the first time the two delegations sit down in one room under U.N. auspices.”
But it was hard to escape the sense that the conditions for a productive negotiation between the Syrian government and the opposition had yet to be set. Mr. Kerry tried to set a positive tone on the eve of the conference by engaging in a calculated display of comity with Mr. Ban and Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister — a gesture that appeared intended to play down the lobbying effort by the United States to persuade the United Nations to withdraw its invitation to Iran to attend the meeting. “Do we look happy?” Mr. Lavrov quipped as the three held hands for a photo.
Another Syrian journalist, speaking on the condition of anonymity to express an opinion, pointed to the fact that many in the government delegation had probably never come face to face with an avowed opposition activist.
But when the conference opened on Wednesday sharp differences came to the fore. Mr. Kerry said it was unthinkable that President Bashar al-Assad of Syria could play a role in a transitional administration that would govern the country as part of a political settlement. The establishment of such a transitional body by “mutual consent” of the Assad government and the Syrian opposition is the major goal of the conference. “The right to lead a country does not come from torture, nor barrel bombs, nor Scud missiles,” Mr. Kerry said.
“These people have never seen, let alone spoken, to anyone in the opposition,” he said.
Mr. Lavrov challenged the American insistence that Mr. Assad be excluded from a transitional administration, arguing that the conference had to “refrain from any attempt to predetermine the outcome of the process.”
“They’ve never seen Haytham Maleh,” he added, referring to a former political prisoner in his 80s, who is a member of the opposition’s delegation here. “So for them to sit across the table for him is historic. It is as if people from the Stalinist system suddenly sat down with the White Russians.”
While the stark differences between the American and Russian positions were outlined in civil tones, that diplomatic restraint was abandoned when Walid al-Moallem, the Syrian foreign minister who will lead the Syrian government’s face-to-face talks with the opposition, took the floor and accused Arab nations of financing terrorism and conspiring to destroy his country.
On the eve of the conference, Mr. Kerry, Mr. Ban and Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, engaged in a calculated display of comity, a gesture that appeared intended to play down the United States’ successful lobbying effort to persuade the United Nations to withdraw its invitation to Iran to attend the meeting.
Speaking for more than 30 minutes, Mr. Moallem also accused insurgents of “sexual jihad” by using brainwashed women as sex slaves and engaging in incest. When Mr. Ban asked that Mr. Moallem wind up his lengthy speech, the Syrian official shot back: “You live in New York, I live in Syria.”
“Do we look happy?” Mr. Lavrov quipped as the three held hands in for a Tuesday night photo opportunity.
After Mr. Ban again urged him to be concise, Mr. Moallem said he would conclude soon, adding that “Syria always keeps its promises.” But he continued with his denunciations of the opposition and Mr. Ban later lamented that his injunction that participants take a constructive approach to the crisis “had been broken.”
But when the conference opened on Wednesday the sharp differences re-emerged. Mr. Kerry said it was unthinkable that President Bashar al-Assad of Syria could play a role in a transitional administration that would govern the country as part of a political settlement. The establishment of such a transitional body by “mutual consent” of the Assad government and the Syrian opposition is the major goal of the conference.
Ahmad Assi al-Jarba, the president of the Syrian opposition, opened with the story of Hajar al-Khatib, 11, who he said was shot by government forces as she rode a bus to school in Rastan near the city of Homs in May 2011. That was in the early days of the protest movement that set off the uprising. “Ten thousand children have died because of the Syrian Army,” he added, singling out not only Mr. Assad but the army, which many pro-government Syrians distinguish from the political leaders as an object of patriotism.
“The right to lead a country does not come from torture, nor barrel bombs, nor Scud missiles,” Mr. Kerry said. “And the only thing standing in its way is the stubborn clinging to power of one man, one family.”
Mr. Jarba has said from the start that the Syrian opposition will never accept a role for Mr. Assad in a transitional government and he wondered aloud if the negotiators that the Syrian president had sent to Switzerland was prepared to contemplate that outcome. “We want to be sure we have a Syrian partner in this room.” Mr. Jarba added. “Do we have such a partner?”
But Mr. Lavrov challenged the American insistence that Mr. Assad be excluded from a possible transitional administration, arguing that the conference had to “refrain from any attempt to predetermine the outcome of the process.” Mr. Lavrov also revived the Russian argument that Iran, Mr. Assad’s regional ally, should be present, challenging the American position that Iran not be allowed to participate until it publicly endorses the mandate for the conference.
Asked whether the United States had any way of putting more leverage on the Assad government, Mr. Kerry suggested that the Obama administration would support “augmented” support for the opposition, among other options. But Mr. Kerry was vague about those options, and the White House has been extremely reluctant to use force in Syria or to even treat the Syria crisis as its principal foreign policy challenge.
In Tehran, President Hassan Rouhani of Iran and other top officials expressed doubt that the Syria peace conference would produce results. The official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted President Rouhani as saying on Wednesday that he was “not optimistic about the conference due to the existing circumstances.”
On the sidelines, attempts at dialogue turned to scuffles. Outside, pro-government protesters waved the flags of the Syrian government and Hezbollah and chanted “God, Bashar and nothing else!” An opposition activist, Rami Jarrah, approached them with a television camera and interviewed them. But when he asked if Mr. Assad should be tried for war crimes, they began shouting and pushing.
While the stark differences between the American and Russia positions were outlined in civil tones at the peace conference, that diplomatic restraint was abandoned when Mr. Moallem took the floor and launched into a diatribe in which he accused Arab nations of financing terrorism and conspiring to destroy his country. “They have used their petrodollars to buy weapons,” he said, “and to flood the international media with lies.”
Inside, the Syrian information minister, Omran al-Zoubi, was asked by a Syrian opposition journalist from Aleppo, Adnan Hadad, about the barrel bombs that the military had used on neighborhoods in his city, killing hundreds in recent weeks.
Mr. Moallem also accused insurgents of conducting “sexual jihad” by brainwashing women into becoming sex slaves and engaging in incest. After Mr. Ban repeatedly urged him to be concise, the Syrian foreign minister said he would conclude soon, adding that “Syria always keeps its promises.”
“This is the kind of question you ask if you support the terrorist groups,” Mr. Zoubi said “Ask the Saudi foreign minister.”
But he continued with his denunciations of the opposition. “Your glorious revolution,” he said sarcastically, “did not leave one single evil deed on earth that it did not do.”
In an interview, Fayssal Mekdad, the Syrian deputy foreign minister, said he welcomed sitting face to face with the government’s opponents. “We look forward to looking them in the eye,” he said, “and asking them, ‘Who do you represent?’ ”
Ahmad al-Jarba, the president of the Syrian opposition, opened with the story of Hajar al-Khatib, 11, who he said had been shot by government forces as she rode a bus to school in Rastan, near the central city of Homs, in May 2011, in the early days of the anti-Assad protests that morphed into a civil war.
“Ten-thousand children have died because of the Syrian Army,” he asserted.
Syrians “waited almost a year before they fought back,” he said, referring to the transformation of a largely peaceful protest movement to an armed insurgency. “Who, ladies and gentlemen, would accept to be violated in this manner? How long should they have waited?”
“We want to be sure we have a Syrian partner in this room,” Mr. Jarba said, alluding to the conference’s goal of establishing a transitional administration. “Do we have such a partner?” he asked, noting that the opposition would never accept a role for Mr. Assad in a transitional administration.
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu of Turkey, which supports Syria’s opposition and is home to tens of thousands of Syrian refugees, reacted sarcastically to Mr. Moallem’s charge that Turkey was backing terrorists. “Yes,” he said, there were many “displaced terrorists in Turkey seeking food and refuge.”
Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister, was asked during his own brief remarks to the conference if the first day had been a dialogue of the deaf.
“No, one delegation was deaf and blind but no one else,” Mr. Fabius said, referring to Mr. Moallem’s speech. “And one delegation saw itself above all and responsible for nothing.”
Outside the conference, Mr. Assad’s supporters waved the flags of the Syrian government and Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militant organization that is helping him. “God, Bashar and nothing else!,” they screamed.
An opposition activist, Rami Jarrah, approached them with a television camera. When he asked if Mr. Assad should be tried for war crimes, they began shouting, calling him a Zionist, shoving and pushing. The police intervened, but not before one Assad supporter grabbed a phone from Mr. Jarrah’s colleague and threw it to the ground, breaking it.
Inside, the Syrian information minister, Omran Zoubi, said Syria was open to all journalists and would answer all questions. But when asked by a Syrian opposition journalist from Aleppo, Adnan Hadad, to comment on the deadly barrel bombs the military had used on neighborhoods in his city, Mr. Zoubi turned hostile.
“This is the kind of question you ask if you support the terrorist groups,” Mr. Zoubi said. “Ask the Saudi foreign minister.”
