Russian Federation has said it would like to see parliamentary and presidential elections in Syria in the near future, but that idea has been rejected by rebels opposed to Assad as unrealistic given the state of infrastructure in Syria and the presence of “Islamic State” (IS) jihadists in large parts of the country.
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Assad’s government has yet to comment on the talks.
Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister, was outlining the common position of European countries including Britain, the United States, and their Gulf allies, led by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, in advance of a new attempt at peace talks scheduled for Vienna tomorrow.
Absent in Vienna is any representative of a Syrian party fighting for the future of its country.
“The challenge that we face in Syria today is nothing less than to chart a course out of hell”, Kerry said in Washington shortly before his departure for Vienna. Foreign ministers of all four nations are to meet Friday, in an encounter that will be closely watched to see if Riyadh and Tehran can work together despite deep rivalries over Syria and other issues.
He says, if there had been, Iran would not have accepted them.
Now in its fifth year, Syria’s armed conflict has killed over 250,000 people and displaced 7.5 million internally and over 4 million externally.
Iran said its foreign minister, Javed Zarif, would attend – the first time a major peacemaking effort has included Tehran as well as Saudi Arabia.
According to Clapper Putin was “very impulsive and opportunistic” as he increased Moscow’s support for Assad in Syria’s civil war.
It said Iran had always sought a cease-fire in among Syrian groups while supporting the fight against (foreign) terrorist groups in Syria.
“We believe the solution for Syria is a political solution”, Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian told Iranian state television on Wednesday.
When asked whether the coalition had been invited to the talks, he said “that didn’t happen”.
All previous efforts to find a diplomatic solution to Syria’s civil war have collapsed over the insistence of the United States, European powers, Arab states and Turkey that Assad agree to leave power.
US Secretary of State John Kerry, who arrived in Vienna early on Thursday, cautioned that this week’s talks would not secure an immediate political solution, but represented the best hope available.
There was no talk of representatives of the Syrian regime or the opposition attending the discussions aimed at ending a four-year war that has claimed a quarter of a million lives.
Douma has suffered intense bombardment in recent months in a wave of strikes the Syrian army has said targets insurgent groups that launched attacks on nearby government-held areas.
Saudi Arabia has demanded that Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad step aside or be forced out of power.
Observers have assessed these remarks as Iran’s readiness to make certain concessions and take a more flexible approach towards the Syrian settlement process.
President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry have already included Russian Federation in talks to stop the violence in Syria, where Syrian dictator Bashar Assad refuses to relinquish power.
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But despite Kerry’s famed confidence in his negotiating abilities, there is little optimism that the chances for real progress are any more likely now than before, as Syria reaches new peaks of chaos and bloodshed.
