Russia’s Syria crisis plan dismissed

Western and Gulf Arab nations dismissed a Russian plan for peace and reform in Syria and said it will not form the basis for talks in Vienna this weekend.

Syria’s war has killed more than 250,000 people and forced the displacement of over half the country’s pre-war population. Russian Federation and Iran would only need to convince Assad to stop fighting.

Or at least, the only way to end it would be for Russian Federation to redouble its current air strike strategy, which has predominantly targeted rebel groups that fall to the moderate end of the scale, and not Isis.

Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, whose fighters have played a key role in backing Assad, said the latest battlefield gains by government forces show that their rivals “should move toward a political solution without preconditions that are impossible to achieve”.

Ahead of the talks, Syrian opposition figures yesterday rejected a Russian draft proposal for a process aimed at ending the almost five-year war, saying Moscow’s aim was to keep Mr Assad in power and marginalise dissenting voices.

“And of course we are receptive for proposals from the other side”.

Speaking to Russian and Turkish media before his trip to the G20 summit in Turkey, Putin said Russian forces have a “clear task to provide air support for the Syrian army’s offensive against terrorists”.

One UN Security Council diplomat described the Russian reform proposal to AFP as “back-of-the-envelope stuff”, and said it was “not the answer“.

A European diplomat said an worldwide preparatory commission will start work Thursday on pulling together the opposition lists, and which should be classified as “terrorist” organisations. Yet the same report added, “Russia is believed to be Assad’s strongest backer and has previously balked at the West’s suggestions that the Syrian president should be ousted”.

Under the plan, the first step toward a new constitution and new presidential and parliamentary elections would be the launching of talks between the Syrian government and “a united delegation of the opposition groups” in accordance with the June 2012 Geneva communique agreed upon by global powers to establish a transitional government in Syria.

By pursuing deeper cooperation with Turkey and Qatar in Syria, Saudi Arabia has created a degree of tension with its two strategic allies: the UAE and Egypt, which both staunchly oppose almost all forms of political Islam in the region.

US Secretary of State John Kerry, who on Friday met with Jubeir as well as the United Nations special envoy for Syria, Steffan de Mistura, had warned before heading to the talks that a quick breakthrough was unlikely.

The Syrian opposition and representatives from Assad government were not invited and will not attend the Saturday meeting.

‘Each state wants to send its representatives in the name of the Syrian opposition, ‘ said Samir Nachar.

“It’s regrettable that the choice does not represent the interests of the Syrian people, and this process will not lead to a settlement of the Syrian crisis”, he said. The charter would be put to a popular referendum and then followed by an early presidential election.

But the document did not specify that Assad would not be allowed to stand in those elections.

The communique said such an authority must be chosen by the Damascus government and opposition by mutual consent, which Washington has said in effect rules out Assad staying in power.