{"id":65956,"date":"2015-11-02T12:17:01","date_gmt":"2015-11-02T12:17:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=65956"},"modified":"2015-11-02T12:17:01","modified_gmt":"2015-11-02T12:17:01","slug":"why-dont-syrian-peace-talks-include-any-syrians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/11\/why-dont-syrian-peace-talks-include-any-syrians\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Don\u2019t Syrian Peace Talks Include Any Syrians?"},"content":{"rendered":"

30 Oct 2015 – <\/em>Talks aimed at finding a solution to the four-year-old Syrian Civil War are underway in Vienna today, with at least one notable absence. There are no representatives from Syria involved in the talks, either from the regime or the opposition.<\/p>\n

\"US<\/a>

US Secretary of State John Kerry, left, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov share a word prior to the start of the Syria talks at a hotel in Vienna, Austria, Friday, Oct. 30, 2015.
CREDIT: Brendan Smialowski\/Pool Photo via AP<\/p><\/div>\n

The peace talks have largely been driven by Russian President Vladimir Putin with recent visits to various nations influencing the Syrian war. A month ago, Putin\u2019s forces intervened in Syria<\/a> with the verbal intention of targeting ISIS. But ISIS wasn\u2019t hit. Instead, a number of rebel groups who oppose ISIS and the Assad regime bore the brunt of the airstrikes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn Syria, the exclusion of groups implies that it is a multilayer conflict: international, regional, and local,\u201d Imad Salamey, a political scientist and Middle Eastern Affairs expert based in Beirut, told ThinkProgress. \u201cThe assumptions in this approach is that an international and regional convergence can overwhelm and force local players to settle domestic disputes. This may also embed a large package of incentives for local parties to reconcile differences while feeling international and regional pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Pres.<\/a>

Pres. Bashar al-Assad<\/p><\/div>\n

On Syrian soil, arms and funds continue to prop up<\/a> both sides in the conflict with little chance of hostilities coming to an end. Syria has no representatives present, leading rebel factions to criticize<\/a> the peace talks. But the countries in attendance arguably have more control over the state of play than any Syrian actors. Iran and Russia have bolstered the Syrian military\u2019s efforts by supplying arms, military advice, and the assistance of proxy militias. On the other side, Gulf states, Turkey, and the United States have supported the opposition to varying levels with intelligence and military aid. On Friday, the U.S. announced it will put boots on the ground<\/a> by sending a small special operations force to Syria.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody is ready to talk to each other on the ground,\u201d Joshua Landis, a Syria expert who writes the blog Syria Comment, told ThinkProgress. \u201cTo the extent that this is a proxy war, the Russians and the Americans need to sort this out first and then it can go down stream.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mantra for both sides is that there has to be a political solution,\u201d Landis said. \u201cThe trouble is that they mean something completely different by that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The U.S. and their allies have so far rejected any idea that Bashar al-Assad would remain in charge of Syria. They feel that Assad must step down<\/a> in order for Syria to rebuild. \u201cFor the sake of the Syrian people,\u201d Obama said<\/a> in August, \u201cthe time has come for President Assad to step aside.\u201d<\/p>\n

httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=a5jgDzBtsi4<\/p>\n

The regime\u2019s supporters envision a different political solution. \u201cThe Russians and Syrians mean Assad wins, the jihadists [mainly ISIS and the al-Qaeda affiliated Nusra Front] are destroyed, and the [Free Syrian Army] and moderate militias negotiate how they\u2019re going to come back and be accepted by the regime,\u201d Landis said.<\/p>\n

Iranian representatives in Vienna said on Friday that they would support elections in Syria six months from now. The elections would determine if Assad would remain in power or be forced to concede the role of president to an opponent.<\/p>\n

\u201cIran does not insist on keeping Assad in power forever,\u201d Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Amir Abdollahian, a member of the Iranian delegation, said<\/a>, according to Reuters. Some officials cited this proposal as a significant shift in Iranian policy.<\/p>\n

But critics say they\u2019ve seen this tactic before. Syria held a controversial election<\/a> just last year where voting was only permitted in government-controlled areas. Thus, Assad strolled to an easy victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho is mad enough to believe that under these circumstances in Syria, anybody can hold elections?\u201d George Sabra, a member of the western-backed Syrian National Coalition, told<\/a> Reuters. \u201cBashar al-Assad and his regime is the root of the terrorism in Syria.\u201d<\/p>\n

_________________________________<\/p>\n

Justin Salhani<\/em> is a World Reporter with <\/em>Think Progress. He was based out of Beirut, Lebanon from 2010-2015 where he covered news, security, and politics with <\/em>The Daily Star, Now Lebanon, and as a freelancer for various outlets. His work has appeared in <\/em>The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, The Christian Science Monitor, Vice News, Al Jazeera, among others. He\u2019s produced documentaries on Lebanon\u2019s battle with the Islamic State (for <\/em>Vice News) and Syrian refugees\u2019 stories in Jordan (3 generations).<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 thinkprogress.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

30 Oct 2015 – Talks aimed at finding a solution to the four-year-old Syrian Civil War are underway in Vienna today, with at least one notable absence. There are no representatives from Syria involved in the talks, either from the regime or the opposition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[204],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-syria-in-context"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65956\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}