Kerry Accuses Syria of Trying to Undercut Peace Talks

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry accused Syria on Sunday of trying to torpedo the restart of peace talks by refusing a United Nations proposal to begin discussing the fate of President Bashar al-Assad.

The top U.S. diplomat’s remarks came as Syria’s warring factions began arriving in Geneva, Switzerland, for U.N.-brokered talks set to open Monday aimed at extending a two-week long break in fighting.

U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura has invited Assad regime officials and their rival opposition groups to focus on a political transition, including plans for a new constitution and the convening of presidential and parliamentary elections within 18 months.

Speaking to reporters in Geneva last week, de Mistura said he wanted to move beyond the immediate efforts to end the killing and accelerate the delivery of humanitarian relief. Instead, he expressed hope of using the 10 days of peace talks to chart Syria’s political future.

On Saturday, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem bluntly rejected the U.N. proposal, saying de Mistura had no right to talk about presidential elections. Moallem said any discussion about Assad’s future constituted a “red line” for the region.

“This is an exclusive right of the Syrian people,” he said.

His remarks renewed doubts about the Syrian leadership’s willingness to cede any degree of power to opposition groups as part of a political process. Syrian negotiators, Moallem said, “will reject any attempt to put this on the agenda.” He called the Syrian government’s enemies “delusional” if they think they can “take power in Geneva that they failed to take in battle.”

The United States, Russia, and other world powers agreed in 2012 on the Geneva Communique, which calls for the establishment of an interim government “with full executive powers.” But Syria has sought to limit diplomatic discussions to negotiating local cease-fires, which Assad’s regime has used into the past to consolidate military gains.

Assad has grown increasingly emboldened since Russia entered the war on his behalf last September, halting a series of rebel advances and helping his government secure a succession of military gains.

Speaking in Paris, Kerry voiced frustration with the Syrian diplomat’s remarks, telling reporters that Moallem was “clearly trying to disrupt the process.”

Kerry — who met with European foreign ministers in Paris — appealed to Syria’s chief foreign backers, Iran and Russia, to influence Damascus to change course. He recalled that Moscow and Tehran both signed on to a political transition agreement during recent big power talks in Vienna and Munich.

“President Assad is singing on a completely different song sheet, and sent his foreign minister out yesterday to try to act as a spoiler and take off the table what President [Vladimir] Putin and the Iranians have agreed to,” Kerry said.

Despite the diplomatic setback, Kerry noted that a two-week cessation of violence has “hugely reduced” the overall level of violence in Syria by 80 to 90 percent, and permitted more than 300 aid trucks to dispense assistance to more than 150,000 people in besieged towns.

“Against all odds, against most predictions, we have been able to sustain for two weeks now a cessation of hostilities…” Kerry said. “People have actually gone out and demonstrated again. People are sitting in cafes in a way that they never would have dared two weeks ago.”

Still, Kerry echoed claims by opposition groups that Syrian forces have violated the cessation of violence, and that Syrian authorities continue to remove “badly needed medical supplies,” including surgical kits, from U.N. aid convoys.

Syria’s civil war has its roots in peaceful anti-government protests in March 2011.

Assad’s government responded with a violent crackdown that has since evolved into a bloody conflict involving numerous armed insurgents and international terrorists. It has also drawn in several outside powers seeking to ease the warfare, including the U.S., Russia, Iran, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia. The U.N. estimates that more than 250,000 Syrians have died during the conflict.

The fighting has also displaced millions, flooding Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon and to a lesser degree, Europe, with refugees. It comes at a time of rising violence through the region.

On Sunday, a car bomb exploded in a heavily populated neighbor in central Ankara, Turkey, killing at least 34 people, and wounding 125 others, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. It remained unclear who was responsible for the attack, but two Turkish officials told the Journal they suspected Kurdish separatists.

Photo Credit: Samuel Corum/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images