Syria peace talks on Feb. 25 unrealistic: UN envoy
… from Press TV, Tehran
Turkey demands US stop helping Syrian Kurds fight terrorism[ Editor’s Note: Mr. de Mistura is throwing the tar baby back into the hands of the main players. As I had editorialized on the front end of the Geneva planning, several of the main players were only interested in the “peace talks” as a platform to make demands to get what they have been using their terrorist proxies for, but losing.
They are literally asking Assad to surrender whatever territory he has not retaken yet by freezing the combat lines of the losing jihadis so the talks can be used to refresh and rearm them for a new round in the conflict. It is clear to de Mistura that he was being set up for blame on the failure of the talks, and he has wisely removed himself from that position.
He is now saying that if people don’t really want to negotiate and move forward, then there is no point in planning a meeting. It is not the Syrians and the Russians who are setting up a 10km “buffer zone” inside Turkey as a “defensive measure. And they are not shelling Turkish forces engaged in supplying the terrorists from their border towns. It is a NATO country doing that. It is Western coalition members doing that.
While the Syrian coalition is daily breaking the sieges of towns that have been held hostage for several years under horrible conditions, we have the Western media whores crowing that this is terrible thing. This deflects attention from the usual hospital bombing stories, which is now an old game they seem to forget we are well aware of.
Lavrov was coy in predicting a 50% chance that the cease fire would not go into effect. I suspect he probably already had intelligence on the Turks planning to move into Syria and the Saudis moving planes into Turkey to begin making bombing runs to back up their terrorist proxies. Mr. de Mistura has throw down the gauntlet that such actions are not a peace process, but just the opposite.
The monkey is now on the US’ and NATO’s backs to control Turkey, and if they cannot, they are kidding themselves if they think they can blame that on the Syrian coalition. NATO and the US are going to be viewed as having been compromised by Turkey, and then by the Saudis… Jim W. Dean ]
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We have this silliness that Syria has to accept the pre-condition to stop retaking its own territory from terrorist control to begin resolving the issue, when the request for peace talks came from its successful anti-terrorism campaign– First published … February 19, 2016 –
United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura says the resumption of the new round of peace talks on the conflict in Syria scheduled for next week is not realistic.
“I cannot realistically call for new Geneva talks starting on February 25,” de Mistura was quoted as saying in a telephone interview from Damascus with the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet reported on Friday.
“We need 10 days of preparations and invitations,” the UN official stated.
The first round of indirect peace talks in Geneva between the Syrian government and the foreign-backed opposition ended on February 3. A second round was slated for February 25.
De Mistura said “real” peace talks between the concerned parties were needed to resolve the issue, and “not just talks about talks.”
“I would like that the US and Russia, with their partners, agree about a beginning of a cessation of hostilities between today and mid-next week,” he said, adding, “Now the ball is in their court.”
Western supporters of the Syrian opposition, as well as the opposition itself, have called for the establishment of a no-fly zone over Syria as a pre-condition for the participation of the opposition in the Geneva talks.
The no-fly zone proposal comes as the Syrian army, backed by Russian air cover, has made significant gains against Takfiri militants on several fronts, particularly in the strategic northern province of Aleppo.
In response to the flying-ban proposal, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said any no-fly zone should be first approved by the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and endorsed by the UN Security Council.
De Mistura also warned against other countries’ unauthorized military intervention in Syria and emphasized the danger of the conflict spreading across the region.
“Turkey is complicating everything and it might complicate things further … Any type of further conflict along the border of Syria has the potential to spin out of control,” he said.
Turkey, on Thursday, carried out cross border bombardment of positions of Syrian Kurdish fighters.
The foreign-sponsored conflict in Syria has reportedly claimed the lives of nearly half a million people and left about two million injured.
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Jim W. Dean is VT Editor Emeritus. He was an active editor on VT from 2010-2022. He was involved in operations, development, and writing, plus an active schedule of TV and radio interviews. He now writes and posts periodically for VT.
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