Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, right, and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry address the media before a meeting in Vienna, Austria, Saturday Nov.14, 2015.
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Representatives from 16 countries plus the U, European Union and Arab League have gathered in Vienna for a second round of talks on establishing a framework for a political resolution to Syria’s prolonged and costly civil war.
The Syrian government has always believed in the political solution to end the Syrian crisis, but it should respect the national sovereignty of Syria, particularly the option to decide the nature of Syria’s political system and the country’s leadership, the minister added.
Following the talks, US Secretary of State John Kerry said negotiations between the Syrian government and opposition should start by January 1.
The agreement tasked the United Nations to supervise the negotiating process, including the formation of a governing council to assume executive powers in Syria, write a new constitution and hold elections – all within the next 18 months. Those groups that do not agree to stop fighting risk being branded terrorists, a designation that now is applied only to the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaida’s Syrian affiliate. Therein may lie the problem in the plan: Moscow considers all groups battling Assad to be terrorist groups.
Arriving at the talks, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir called the Paris attacks, in which more than 100 people were killed, “heinous”, saying they violated “all the ethics, morals and religions”.
The process will be led by United Nations envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura.
Syria’s sovereignty not negotiable either with friends or enemies, the Syrian information minister said on Sunday, in apparent response to the outcome of the Vienna talks a day earlier. The United States has insisted Assad be removed from power before the war can end, while Russian Federation, Iran and others have said Syrians should have a say in who leads the country.
He said the plan has many points that “run in harmony” with Mr Assad’s position that combatting terrorism should be a priority. But I would say they were looking for a lot more momentum than they maybe were able to get because there are still a few pretty significant remaining issues that divide the key players.
The Washington Post, working from reports in the official Syrian state news agency, says that Assad expressed sympathy for the loss of life in Paris, but strove to connect those attacks to the rebellion that has been in progress against his regime for several years.
“Make no mistake that resolve has only grown stronger in the wake of this unspeakable brutality”, Kerry said of the attacks in Paris which were claimed by the Daesh terror group operating out of Iraq and Syria.
“We have also come to a mutual agreement to conduct a fair election in 18 months”, he said.
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But Russian Federation, carrying out air strikes against Syrian rebels since late September, is together with Iran sticking with Assad, seeing him as the best bulwark against IS. Europe and Syria’s neighbors, meanwhile, are struggling to cope with the worst migrant crisis since World War II.
