UN's Syria envoy warns of attempts to derail peace talks

The UN’s Syria envoy has warned that spoilers and provocative rhetoric will be unleashed to derail his efforts to create a roadmap to end the country’s five-year civil war.

Opening the potentially historic Syrian peace talks in Geneva, Staffan de Mistura also said the only alternative to the peace process was a return to even more fighting. “This is the moment of truth,” he said as he reminded all sides of the 1,000 children killed in the civil war in the past year.

The conflict has lasted so long that 3.7 million Syrian children have seen nothing but war, de Mistura said.

“Some referred to a plan B,” he said. “So far as I know the only plan B available is return to war and even worse war than we have now.” De Mistura’s first session on Monday was with the Syrian government’s negotiating team. Speaking afterwards, Bashar Ja’afari, who heads the government delegation, said talks would be sabotaged if the other side continued to set preconditions, presumed to be a reference to the demand that Bashar-al-Assad steps down as president.

“We want to have an inter-Syrian dialogue that is Syrian-led without foreign intervention and without preconditions,” Ja’afari said.

Ja’afari also said he had submitted a document entitled Basic Elements for a Political Solution and believed its ideas could enrich the diplomatic effort.

An early task for de Mistura is to get the two sides to engage with a political transition process that does not have to settle the issue of the future role of Assad at this stage.

Before the talks, there had been anger on the American side that the Syrian government had ruled out any discussions on the future of Assad. The opposition high negotiations committee (HNC) had on Sunday reiterated that any transitional body must be imbued with all executive powers.

“There will be no role within this body for those who have committed crimes, or for Bashar al-Assad,” said the HNC spokesman, Salem al-Meslet.

De Mistura acknowledged this was the gap he had to bridge: “It is up to the Syrian people to vote, elect and decide. At the end of the day it will be up to them to decide how to run their country,” he said.

Asked about the apparent gulf between government and opposition negotiators on the question of Syria’s political transition, de Mistura said negotiations and peace talks always began with strong or rhetorical statements.

The Syrian opposition’s bargaining hand has been weakened on the battlefield, largely owing to the strong military support given to Assad by Russia, but also as a result of attacks by the al-Nusra Front, an Islamist group not party to the peace talks.