UN special envoy Staffan de Mistura today declared a “pause” of the Geneva-based Syrian peace talks, saying both sides need to do more before than can be a serious effort. Mistura added he didn’t want talks just for the sake of talks.
The talks cap a week and a half process, in which talks were initially scheduled for last Monday, invites sent out Tuesday, the rebels declined the invitation Wednesday then showed up over the weekend, insisting they weren’t officially “at” the talks, and both sides disputing assessments from earlier this week that the talks had “formally begun.” Indeed, to this point neither side was willing to concede that talks ever happened at all.
The effort was long delayed over arguments among nations over who would be allowed to attend, with Turkey threatening to boycott the talks if any Kurds were allowed in. The Kurds showed up over the weekend too, but were told to leave.
The US, for its part, insists the pause is wholly Russia’s fault, a function of them continuing airstrikes in Syria during the talks, even though there was never a ceasefire agreed to beforehand, and US warplanes too continued airstrikes throughout the period.
Even if there was a cease fire, and even if the US had stopped bombing, the lame excuse for peace talks shows why Russia would not stop hammering the rebels just so this show can go nowhere.
But since no ceasefire was agreed and the US has not stopped bombing, there is no sane reason to complain about Russian bombing during the attempt to start peace talks.
“…continuing airstrikes in Syria during the talks…”
That’s the reason they were holding “talks” you see…The US wanted Russia to back off bombing not so they could “talk” but just to stop the Russians from interfering in whatever it is the US(/Turks) is doing.
“Talks” are not meant to end the conflict because they’re not ready for the conflict to end but to obfuscate the truth and confuse the masses.
09/03/2014 WND-TV LT. GEN. MCINERNEY: WE HELPED BUILD ISIS WITH WEAPONS FROM BENGHAZI
http://www.wnd.com/wnd_video/lt-general-mcinerney-we-helped-build-isis-with-weapons-from-benghazi/