After two years of ravaging civil war in Syria, many have discussed the possible solutions to end the conflict and bring an end to the war, that left around 80,000 people dead on the ground, and even more homeless and hurt, or forcing them into exile.
Recently in Iraq, Syrian foreign policy minister signaled the wish of Syria’s government to attend Geneva peace talks, terming it as a great opportunity to bring a political solution to the conflict. The government agreed ‘in principle’ to take part in the Geneva peace conference, to be held in June, yet, despite this theoretic support of the peace talks, foreign minister Walid Muallem praised an Iraqi operation against Sunni armed groups at the borders, and judged the countries supporting the rebels of Syria, blaming them equally for supporting terrorism in Iraq. This does not only create and support further conspiracy theories, but also casts shadow on the expressed wish of the government to reach a political solution.
The peace talks are supposed to be held in June with the participation of the government and the opposition, but a fix date has not yet been set, because the lack of unity of Syrian opposition, as Moscow declared earlier. Moreover, the Syrian National Coalition, although ready to attend the peace negotiations, also requested initial guarantees that Assad would eventually step down. This makes it more difficult to reach a solution, as so far, it does not seem that it is the intention of Assad to abandon power and step down. In this way, negotiations are even unnecessary, as there is only one way to please the opposition.
The peace talks are supported by both Washington and Moscow, signalling also an unprecedented and very rare agreement between the two great powers on such an important regional issue. Yet they probably have different images on how the negotiations should end. While Moscow has been a faithful supporter of the Syrian regime, the US rather stood for the departure of Assad and supported a peaceful solution.
The faith of the peace talks largely depend on the government and the opposition to give in and make compromises to work for a feasible solution. In the light of the two years of civil war, such a solution is hard to imagine, as well as the will of any of the two parties to engage in compromises.
