| New York Times | - |
GENEVA - New fireworks erupted at talks between the Syrian
government and the opposition here on Tuesday, as the government
sharply criticized a recent decision by the United States Congress to
approve continued support for the Syrian rebels, and the ...
Syrian Talks Disrupted by Congress’s Approval of Aid to Rebels
GENEVA
— New fireworks erupted at talks between the Syrian government and the
opposition here on Tuesday, as the government sharply criticized a
recent decision by the United States Congress to approve continued
support for the Syrian rebels, and the United Nations’ top mediator
decided not to continue talks in the afternoon.
The
opposition delegation presented a detailed plan for the future of
Syria, said Oubai Shahbandar, an adviser to the delegation. But after
what Mr. Shahbandar called an “outburst” from the government’s lead
negotiator, Bashar al-Jaafari, no further discussion was held on forming
a transitional government, the central issue in the talks under the
protocols of the first Geneva conference, in 2012.
Syria’s
information minister, Omran al-Zoubi, played down the clash in the
morning meeting, saying in an interview that the two sides had spent “10
minutes laughing” after Mr. Jaafari, the Syrian ambassador to the
United Nations, joked that Al Jazeera, the Qatari-owned pan-Arab news
channel that the government despises for its sympathetic stance on the
insurgency, was “founded by Gandhi and Nelson Mandela.”
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Mr.
Zoubi said the American aid to the rebels, now with explicit
congressional approval, contradicted the United States’ role as a
sponsor of the peace talks. Russia, the other sponsor, has supported the
Syrian government with arms sales, but Syrian officials say that falls
under legal bilateral relations and is not equivalent to the American
funding.
“Russia
is working with the Americans to find a political solution, and
suddenly they find a solution which contradicts the initiative,” he
said, referring to the American financing of the rebels. “Do they want
to destroy Geneva?” He accused the United States of supporting
terrorists.
The
State Department rejected that claim. “Any notion that we support
terrorists is ludicrous,” Edgar Vasquez, a department spokesman in
Geneva, said in a statement. Referring to the Syrian president, Bashar
al-Assad, he added: “The Assad regime is a magnet for terrorists. The
regime’s brutality is the source of the violent extremism in Syria
today. We support the moderate political and military opposition who are
fighting for the freedom and dignity of all the Syrian people.”
Members
of Congress last year raised a variety of concerns about a C.I.A.
program to arm and train Syrian rebels in Jordan, accusing the Obama
administration of wading deeper into the Syrian war without a clear
strategy, and expressing worries that the arms could end up in the hands
of Islamic militants.
The
White House was able to overcome these objections, and lawmakers ended
up approving money for the mission in classified defense appropriations
legislation, as Reuters reported on Monday.
But
the exchanges in Geneva again illustrated how little common ground
there is. The United Nations mediator for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, said
at a news conference Tuesday afternoon: “These are not easy
negotiations. They were not easy before, they will not be easy in the
coming few days, but I’m glad that nobody is willing to leave.”
The
two sides have been unable to even begin discussing the issue of
political transition. The government submitted a new document as an
opening statement for the basis of talks that did not refer to a
transition of power, and the opposition rejected it.
Nor
was there progress on what Mr. Brahimi and others had hoped would be
the easiest win for the talks, a humanitarian pause in the fighting in
the western Syrian city of Homs to allow aid to reach blockaded areas
there.
The
United Nations has trucks loaded with food for up to 2,500 people ready
at a warehouse outside Homs but has not yet received authorization to
proceed, a World Food Program spokeswoman told reporters on Tuesday.
In
four days of stuttering peace talks in Geneva, Mr. Brahimi has pressed
Syria’s government and opposition to allow aid agencies to enter
blockaded areas of Homs and let civilians leave as a confidence-building
step, but with little success.
Tuesday’s
afternoon session was canceled over what opposition delegates described
as differences over the goal of the talks, and to give the government
time to make a proposal for the future of the country.
“There
is deep resistance by the regime to move the discussions onto the
question of a transitional government,” an opposition negotiator, Ahmed
Jakal, told Reuters. Murhaf Jouejati, a member of the opposition Syrian
National Coalition’s negotiating team, told The Associated Press that
the opposition was giving the government the chance “to come out with
their own vision for a future Syria” within the context of the agreement
reached at the first Geneva conference.
On
the question of humanitarian assistance, the Syrian government says it
is generally ready to provide aid under an existing plan worked out with
international agencies, and blames threats from insurgents for any
obstruction. But the opposition coalition, its Western backers and some
United Nations agencies say that when it comes to specific permission,
particularly for convoys to enter areas under insurgent control, the
government often denies access.
“The
humanitarian discussions haven’t produced much, unfortunately,” Mr.
Brahimi told reporters at the end of Monday’s discussions, citing “all
sorts of problems,” including the presence of snipers.
The
World Food Program spokeswoman, Elisabeth Byrs, said the United Nations
was preparing to send in a convoy once it received the go-ahead; the
agency has been unable to get supplies into the Old City of Homs for
over a year.
United
Nations agencies say they do not know how many people remain in the Old
City, but in addition to the month’s worth of supplies for 2,500
people, the World Food Program also has specialized nutrition for
children presumed to be suffering from acute malnutrition and stunted
growth.
The
agency distributed food to 687,000 people at 50 other locations in Homs
Province last month, Ms. Byrs said, but in many towns it has been able
to enter only every three to six months. The United Nations is
increasingly concerned about the fate of 775,000 people elsewhere in the
country, including in the city of Deir al-Zour in the east, which it
has been unable to reach for some months, Ms. Byrs added.
United
States officials in Geneva said earlier that talks were continuing
among the United Nations, Russia, the Syrian government and the
opposition on the issues of humanitarian aid to “besieged communities,”
prisoner releases and exchanges, and localized cease-fires — all seen by
international negotiators as potential confidence-building measures.
Western
diplomats have said that if progress is not made soon, they may take
the impasse to the Security Council, where they believe Russia is less
likely now to use its veto than in the past because it is concerned
about its image on the eve of hosting the Winter Olympics.
Hwaida Saad contributed reporting from Geneva, and Mark Mazzetti from Washington.
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