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U.S. and Russian Diplomats Confer With Syria Mediator U.S. and Russian Diplomats Confer With Syria Mediator
(about 1 hour later)
GENEVA — Senior Russian and American diplomats conferred with the United Nations mediator Lakhdar Brahimi on Thursday in a bid to revive Syrian peace talks that have become paralyzed by wrangling between Syrian government and opposition delegates. GENEVA — Russia and the United States pledged their help in reviving stalled Syrian peace negotiations, United Nations’ mediator Lakhdar Brahimi reported Thursday, but their deliberations did nothing to dispel uncertainty about how the process will proceed or produce any initiative to ease the plight of war-weary Syrians.
But if the two powers have a common purpose in Geneva, the circumstances hardly look propitious. Mr. Brahimi’s consultations with Gennady Gatilov, the Russian deputy foreign minister, and Wendy R. Sherman, the undersecretary of state for political affairs, came as intense fighting in Syria caused a spike in casualties and a new flood of refugees. And at the United Nations, Russia and the United States squared off in the Security Council over a resolution intended to permit relief agencies to deliver humanitarian aid to starving and war-battered civilians. Mr. Brahimi’s consultations with Russian deputy foreign minister Gennady Gatilov and undersecretary of state for political affairs Wendy Sherman came as intense fighting in Syria caused a spike in casualties and a new flood of refugees. And while the two powers that set the peace process in motion have a common purpose in moving it forward, Russia and the United States have squared off in the U.N. Security Council over a resolution intended to open access for relief agencies to deliver humanitarian aid to civilians worn down by three years of conflict.
Mr. Gatilov and Ms. Sherman will meet respectively with Syrian government and opposition delegates to the talks, and Mr. Gatilov may also meet the opposition. But hopes that the three diplomats would be able to hold a joint session with both of the warring parties in a bid to inject some momentum into the Geneva process look set to be disappointed. Mr. Brahimi was due to meet the warring factions again on Friday but as the second round of peace talks ground towards a close the only progress he could report was that the warring parties were a little more used to the presence of the other side. “I don’t think any friendships have developed yet,” he said drily.
The Syrian government team, led by Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, has rejected the idea, an official following the talks said. “Failure is always staring at us in the face,” he observed.
That would be consistent with the government delegates’ stubborn insistence on having the talks focus on terrorism, which has become the main sticking point. The government has often used the term to describe all armed resistance to its rule, so the opposition is loath to frame the discussion as a fight against terrorism. It wants instead to talk about political transition, a proposition dismissed by the government’s spokesmen this week as “a recipe for disaster.” The immediate sticking point in Geneva is government delegates’ insistence that talks must focus on terrorism and the opposition’s determination to discuss the formation of a transitional governing body. The government has often used the term to describe all armed resistance to its rule so the opposition is loath to frame the discussion as a fight against terrorism. It wants instead to talk about political transition, a proposition dismissed by the government’s spokesmen this week as “a recipe for disaster.”
That divergence has spilled over to the Security Council, where Russia has rejected an American-backed resolution threatening sanctions against anyone obstructing humanitarian aid deliveries and has submitted its own draft resolution combining the issue of humanitarian aid with calls to condemn terrorism. Mr. Gatilov, after meeting the government delegation on Wednesday, said both issues were important, Syria’s state news agency, SANA, reported , but the extent of Russia’s leverage with President Bashar al-Assad’s government and how much political capital it is ready to expend in using it remains a matter of conjecture.
“Terrorism is certainly no less acute a problem” than the need for aid access to blockaded areas in Syria, said the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, adding that Russia’s draft laid out “our vision of the role the Security Council can play if we want to foster a solution to the problems and not antagonize one side or the other.” Ms. Sherman was due to meet opposition representatives later on Thursday but hopes that the three diplomats would be able to hold a joint session with both of the warring parties in a bid to inject some momentum into process looked unlikely to go ahead.
As talks here paused awaiting the outcome of trilateral meetings, fighting intensified in Syria. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an anti-government group based in Britain that tracks the conflict through networks on the ground, nearly 5,000 people have died in Syria in three weeks since the meetings began in Geneva. The Observatory has called the death toll during that period the highest during the nearly three-year conflict. The Syrian government team which is led by foreign minister Walid Muallem rejected the idea, an official following the talks said.
Fighting intensified in the Qalamoun area along the Lebanese border on Thursday. Anti-government fighters reported a new development there, the use of so-called barrel bombs, or large payloads of TNT often dropped from helicopters, on the town of Yabroud. The town is a rebel stronghold that had long ruled itself but has come under fire during a government offensive that has taken back other towns in the mountainous area. The divergence on terrorism, meanwhile, has spilled over to the Security Council, where Russia has rejected an American-backed resolution threatening sanctions against anyone obstructing humanitarian aid deliveries and has submitted its own draft resolution combining the issue of humanitarian aid with calls to condemn terrorism.
Abu Al-Majd, a rebel leader in the area, said by telephone that many civilians had left the area, heading to the Lebanese border town of Arsal or to Damascus depending on where they felt most secure. He said that government reinforcements, including 20 tanks, were arriving on the outskirts of Yabroud from Damascus and Homs, backed by fighters from the Lebanese militia Hezbollah. In recent days, more than 50 aerial bombardments have hit Yabroud, fighters said. “Terrorism is certainly no less acute a problem” than the need for aid access to blockaded areas in Syria, Russian foreign minister Sergey V. Lavrov said, adding that Russia’s draft laid out “our vision of the role the Security Council can play if we want to foster a solution to the problems and not antagonise one side or the other.”
In the northern city of Aleppo, 51 people, including 13 rebel fighters, were killed during a government bombardment of the city. The flow of people fleeing Aleppo for the Turkish border has intensified during weeks of heavy barrel-bomb bombardment there, according to aid workers near the border. The Russian draft, which was circulated Wednesday evening, makes no mention of the specific cities that are besieged, as the original draft does, nor does it condemn barrel bombs. The first draft singles out the Syrian government on several occasions, especially for thwarting the delivery of aid into besieged towns and cities. Russia’s takes out those references to the government and establishes parity of blame.
In Syria, the governor of the central city of Homs told Reuters that a cease-fire there that began Friday to allow aid access to blockaded neighborhoods had been extended for an additional three days. The original draft condemns terrorism and singles out Al Qaeda, as well as the Hezbollah and Quds Force, which both enjoy Iranian support and fight on behalf of the Assad government. Russia mentions only Al Qaeda.
The governor, Talal al-Barazi, said that 1,400 people had been evacuated from the besieged Old City since last Friday, when the United Nations-brokered cease-fire began. But he said 220 were still detained for questioning. United Nations monitors have been present for the questioning, according to American officials, who called for continued international attention to make sure those detained — mainly males considered to be of fighting age — do not disappear into indefinite detention. There are no punitive measures in the Russian draft text. While the first draft uses the term “demands” to express what the Security Council wants from the warring parties, the Russian draft uses the toned-down phrase “calls upon.”
The so-called humanitarian pause in Homs, so far the only concrete achievement of the Geneva talks, has drawn criticism from all sides. Some government supporters say it amounts to feeding their enemies, and opponents contend it is a government scheme to displace or imprison residents and then obliterate whoever and whatever remains. The Russian text also commends the Syrian government for honoring a presidential statement that the Council passed in October, urging the warring parties in Syria to let in badly needed aid. The United Nations’s aid chief, Valerie Amos, has since said that she regretted that there has not been greater cooperation from both sides, and has lately described the siege as “heinous.”
Ms. Amos is scheduled to brief the Council this afternoon. Walking into the Council this afternoon, Vitaly I. Churkin, looked unruffled, smiled at reporters, and asked how negotiations are going, said simply: “Very well.”
Ambassadors representing the five permanent members of the Council, plus the three who drafted the first draft resolution, met at the Russian mission this afternoon.
As talks here paused, awaiting the outcome of the senior officials’ meetings, fighting intensified in Syria. Nearly 5,000 people have died in Syria in three weeks since the meetings began in Geneva, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an anti-government group base in Britain that tracks the conflict through networks on the ground.
The government’s barrel bombing of Aleppo alone had killed 421 people in the last 12 days, it said, including 109 children under the age of 18. The United Nations refugee agency said fighting in northern Syria had caused a surge in refugees crossing into Turkey and it was bracing for a similar influx in Lebanon following a burst of fighting in the Qalamoun area along the border on Thursday.
Anti-government fighters reported a new development there, the use of so–called barrel bombs, large payloads of TNT often dropped from helicopters, on the town of Yabroud. The town is a rebel stronghold that had long ruled itself but has come under fire during a government offensive that has taken back other towns in the mountainous area.
Abu al-Majed, a rebel leader in the area, said by telephone that many civilians had left the area, heading to the Lebanese border town of Arsal or to Damascus, depending on their security situation. He said that government reinforcements, including 20 tanks, were arriving on the outskirts of Yabroud from Damascus and Homs, backed by fighters from the Lebanese militia Hezbollah. In recent days, more than 50 aerial bombardments have hit Yabroud, fighters said.
In the northern city of Aleppo, 51 people, including 13 rebel fighters, were killed by government bombardment in the city of Aleppo, according to the Observatory. The flow of people fleeing Aleppo for the Turkish border has intensified during weeks of heavy barrel-bomb bombardment there, according to aid workers near the border.
In Syria, the governor of the central city of Homs told Reuters that a ceasefire there that began Friday to allow aid access to blockaded neighborhoods had been extended for an additional three days.
The governor, Talal al-Barazi, said that 1,400 people had been evacuated from the besieged Old City since last Friday, when the U.N.-brokered ceasefire began. But he said 220 were still detained for questioning. Monitors have been present for the questioning, according to American officials, who called for continued international attention to make sure those detained — mainly males considered to be of fighting age, do not disappear into indefinite detention.
The so-called humanitarian pause in Homs, so far the only concrete achievement of the Geneva talks, has been controversial. Some government supporters say it amounts to feeding enemies, and opponents contend it is a government scheme to displace or imprison residents and then obliterate whoever and whatever remains.
Diplomatic pressure is building to allow humanitarian agencies to deliver aid to more than six million Syrians in need of support after nearly three years of brutal conflict, including a quarter of a million people believed to be trapped in besieged areas.Diplomatic pressure is building to allow humanitarian agencies to deliver aid to more than six million Syrians in need of support after nearly three years of brutal conflict, including a quarter of a million people believed to be trapped in besieged areas.
The United Nations’ chief aid coordinator, Valerie Amos, is scheduled to report to the Security Council on Thursday and is expected to call for more pressure on government forces and rebels to stop blocking aid deliveries.