Though there’s plenty of skepticism about the chances of next month’s Geneva Conference on both sides of Syria’s Civil War, the Assad government has announced that it will take part. Russia announced the agreement first, and Syrian officials later acknowledged it.
The talks are the product of an agreement by the US (which has been backing the rebels) and Russia (which has been backing the government) to try to negotiate a political solution to end the stalemated war.
Syria’s rebel SNC, one of the largest umbrella groups, has been debating whether or not they will take part in the talks. The latest comments include a report from one official that they will participate, and a statement from a spokesman saying they only will if Assad resigns beforehand. Russian officials have expressed concern that the rebels remain too divided and it will be difficult for them to negotiate as a single force at the conference.
Previous efforts at negotiating peace talks have failed almost immediately, usually with the rebels demanding that President Bashar Assad unconditionally resign and hand over power to them before the talks even begin. With growing international concern about the Islamist factions dominating the rebellion, however, the US backing for this sort of policy is getting noticeably shakier, and Assad’s agreement to talk virtually obliged the rebels to show up, regardless of whether they plan to make any deals.
Certainly, if the slaughter can be stopped, whoever was responsible would be a hero. But I fear there are too many manipulators involved, each one of which has their own agenda.
When will the world ever see Peace? Never, I think!
I think it takes a miracle to get any deal in Geneva talks. US and rebels will not take anything less than Assad's immediate surrender, which they never get. Kerry has already stated that he counts on failure of the talks and they are probably only a smokescreen for an open arming of rebels by USA, what is probably the thing military–industrial–congressional complex wants the most. It will be just another "Smoke on the water" over Lake Geneva, albeit not as likable and popular as the original Deep Purple thing.
Stalemated war? All reports indicate the Syrian government has turned the tables on the rebels.
Okay, since everybody is making a wager, so will I.
Assad will use time between now and Geneva to flatten rebel lines, forcing rebel groups to either surrender to "peace" or surrender to death. I think this is the writing on the wall -and the main hand played by Syrian Republic in Geneva. Naturally, the outsider forces will demand concessions but inside Syria they have no land they can hold, no governing body. So it is a bluff. But the clock is ticking for the rebels.
Reality: rebels and Obama have no cards. All bluff. They lost on the turn, they've lost on the river. They have no where to go except all out declaration of war. And in the next month Syrian Republic will continue to lay cards on the table to discredit the rebels hand/power… expect something to continue such as:
1) Outsider officers/agents from Qatar, Turkey, KSA. etc will be exposed as prisoners captured inside Syria.
2) Outsider fighters from Chechnya, Libya, Tunisia will continued to be killed or captured in high profile events.
These events will the dominant thread. Outside public opinion has shifted toward condemning –not empathizing with — rebel groups. Desecration of corpses and eating flesh was the worst move and it resonated.Only a fool would justify such madness. Now with more and more outsiders captured or caught and with Islamist killing or attacking UK and FR military back at their home states, the writing is clearly on the wall.
One question, will the US still get to eat its cake and have it too –or with Obama's admitting killing his own people, the ramped up drone attacks, the spying on journalists and/or criminalization of the press, will the news-reporters take the gloves off? IF Obama is successfully outed as a proxy warrior will the death squads in Syria be connected to the mentality that gave the US Iran-Contra, Central America…Afghanistan what will the American people demand from the government? Promises of transparency and good housekeeping doesn't seem to be equatable to spying on the press…you know?
The Emperor may have no clothes, but he is still eating his cake and having it too.