Peace Talks to Resume in Geneva, but Divisions Over Assad Remain
With peace talks set to kick off on Monday in Geneva, the warring sides are showing no sign of compromising over the fate of President Bashar al-Assad, the issue at the center of the five-year-long war.
The resumption of talks comes just one month after the negotiations in Geneva collapsed because of continued fighting and a significant increase in Russian airstrikes in Syria.
And while expectations for any kind of diplomatic breakthrough remain low, the Russian and U.S.-brokered ceasefire, in place for more than two weeks now, has allowed for an acute drop in violence and the revival of hopes for some sort of political resolution to the conflict.
But while U.S.-Russian cooperation has helped to reduce levels of violence on the ground and brought warring parties back to the negotiating table in Geneva, differences over key issues leave little room for a negotiated settlement.
Syrian foreign minister Walid al-Mouallem said Saturday the opposition was deluded if it believed it could take power at the negotiating table, ruling out any chance of debating the presidency.
Assad’s future was a “red line” for Damascus, he said. “The government delegation will reject any attempt to put this on the agenda.”
The international agreement under which the peace talks are set to take place does not specifically mention Assad, but outlines the creation of a transitional government “with full executive powers” that is supposed to take control of the country while a new constitution is being written and new elections are prepared. The opposition has continuously stated that its interpretation of the agreement is that there is no place for Assad in the transition or thereafter.
The U.S. has repeatedly said that peace in Syria is impossible as long as Assad remains in power, but has avoided demanding the negotiations specifically address his future.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry expressed frustration Sunday with the Assad regime, saying it was intentionally trying to spoil the talks.
“Assad sent his foreign minister out … to try and act as a spoiler, to take off the table something that President Putin and Iran had committed to” in signing the negotiations agreement, Kerry said.
Rebels Down Government Plane, al-Nusra Takes Rebel Positions
Violence on the ground continued over the weekend in the lead-up to Monday’s peace talks.
Syrian rebels shot down a government warplane on Saturday as it flew over a village in the central Hama province, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Rami Abdulrahman, head of the Observatory, told AFP that Ahrah al-Sham fired two heat-seeking missiles at a military aircraft flying over Kafr Nabuda. “The first missile missed, but the second one struck the plane,” he said.
Abdulrahman said the plane had crashed in government-held territory and that the fate of its flight crew was unknown.
Additionally over the weekend, the al-Qaida affiliated al-Nusra Front captured bases and weapons from Western-backed rebel groups on Saturday night, Reuters reports.
Abdulrahman said al-Nusra had also detained dozens of fighters connected to the Free Syrian Army’s 13th Division, capturing U.S.-made anti-tank missiles.
One-Third of Children Born During War: U.N.
According to a report published by the United Nations on Monday, nearly one-third of Syrian children were born during the last five years of conflict, adding further weight to claims of a lost Syrian generation, the New York Times reports.
At least 300,000 of the total 3.7 million children born in the past five years were born as refugees.
At least 80 percent of Syria’s 18-and-under population, about 8.4 million children, are in urgent need of humanitarian aid in Syria and its neighboring countries, according to UNICEF, the U.N.’s Children’s Fund.
UNICEF’s report labeled 2015 the war’s worst, saying it had documented nearly 1,500 “grave violations against children in the one year alone, more than half of them from killings and injuries derived from explosive weapons in populated areas.”
Some 2.1 million children Syrian were out of school last year, and cases of child recruitment by militant groups sharply increased.
“These children are receiving military training and participating in combat, or taking up life-threatening roles at the battlefront, including carrying and maintaining weapons, manning checkpoints and treating and evacuating war wounded,” the report said. “Parties to the conflict are using children to kill, including as executioners or snipers.”
Recommended Reads
- Agence France-Presse: Four Lives Derailed by Syria’s Brutal War
- The New York Times: To Maintain Supply of Sex Slaves, ISIS Pushes Birth Control
- CNN: The Truth About Syria: Undercover Behind Rebel Lines
- CNN: Syrian Peace Talks: Why This Round Might Be Different
- Associated Press: A Look at How the Syrian War Has Changed the World
- Associated Press: A Look at the Cost of Five Years of Conflict in Syria
- The Guardian: Russia and the U.S. Now Have the Power to Impose Peace in Syria
- The New York Times: Signs of Hope Five Years After Start of Syria’s War
- BBC: Syria: A Different Country After Five Years of War
- Al-Jazeera: Is Federalism the Answer to the War in Syria?
Top image: Zubaida Faisal, 10, skips a rope while she and other children play near their tents in July 2015 at an informal tented settlement near the Syrian border on the outskirts of Mafraq, Jordan. UNICEF said Monday, March 14, 2016 that one-third of Syrians under the age of 18, or about 3.7 million, were born since an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad erupted in 2011 and escalated into a civil war. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)