With the Geneva II talks just a week and a half away, there is essentially no chance it will accomplish anything, and a very good chance that no rebel faction at all will attend, with many uninvited and the Syrian National Coalition (SNC) still undecided.
But Secretary of State John Kerry and other Western officials insisted the talks “must proceed” at all costs, insisting that there is no alternative path to ending the war.
There isn’t an alternative path, but the Geneva II talks have appeared doomed from the start, and with most of the focus now on whether or not the US will allow Iran to attend, the talks seem like they’re going to boil down to Western nations and Russia bickering over a settlement neither is going to be able to impose.
Geneva II was initially scheduled for June, but got pushed back repeatedly on hopes the SNC would eventually come on board. In the end they’re still an open question, and the talks have had to relocate to Montreaux because a luxury watch convention got all the good hotels in Geneva. Now, with all the Montreaux hotels booked, everyone seems determined to attend no matter how fruitless the talks will be.
