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Syria enemies agree to first face-to-face talks
1/24/2014 8:06:34 PM
- NEW: U.S. welcomes getting the two sides in Syria talks into the same room
- Secretary of State Kerry calls Syrian conflict a magnet for jihad
- Kerry reiterates that al-Assad cannot be part of a new Syrian leadership
- The talks seek to end violence that erupted in 2011 and has killed more than 100,000
Geneva, Switzerland (CNN) -- Delegations for the Syrian government and the Syrian opposition will meet in the same room for talks on Saturday -- a day later than originally planned,
U.N. special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi made the announcement on Friday after he met separately with each side to apparently prevent an immediate breakdown in efforts to end Syria's civil war.
However, it was unclear if the two sides would talk directly to each other on Saturday or continue to use Brahimi as a go-between, indicating the continuing obstacles in the negotiations.
The delegations originally were scheduled to sit down in the same room on Friday in Geneva, but Brahimi said he needed more time to set up the session.
The session is intended to launch talks to carry out a 2012 agreement to end the Syrian fighting and set up a transitional government.
Citing U.N. sources, Syrian state TV reported that Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem told Brahimi that if a serious meeting was not held Saturday, "the Syrian official delegation will leave Geneva because of the lack of seriousness and readiness" of the opposition.
Meanwhile, the opposition delegation warned that it would not take part in any direct talks unless it saw movement on the issue of a transitional government -- that is, that the government shifts on its position that President Bashar al-Assad will remain in power.
The international community is trying to bring the two sides into the same room to start negotiations on ending violence that has claimed more than 100,000 lives since 2011.
The war has become increasingly sectarian, drawing in Syria's regional neighbors and forcing out more than 2 million refugees, many of them children.
"We know it's going to be very, very hard," U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday in a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
But he added that diplomacy had already shown some hope by leading the al-Assad regime to turn over its known chemical weapons stockpile.
The fighting has made Syria "the world's greatest single individual magnet for jihad and terror," said Kerry. Noting atrocities by the al-Assad regime, Kerry also made clear that the United States supports the opposition position that al-Assad must go.
"Because of the havoc he has wreaked on his people, Assad will never have the legitimacy to govern Syria," Kerry said.
State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki later welcomed the news of the Saturday talks, saying "such a meeting is a positive step forward in what we expect will be a long and complicated process."
"We reiterate the same point we have made all day: You should not perceive every obstacle or challenge that arises throughout the process as a deal-breaker or a collapse," Psaki said.
The talks seek to set up a transitional government under a plan hashed out in Geneva in 2012 to end Syria's civil war. But the warring Syrian sides remain far apart.
In a preliminary international session held Wednesday in nearby Montreux, Syria struck a defiant tone, laying a record of atrocities -- rape, arson, even the destruction of Syrian culture itself -- at the feet of rebels and chiding outsiders for trying to interfere. No one had the right to withdraw al-Assad's legitimacy, Moallem said.
Meanwhile, the leader of Syria's main opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, made clear that it sees no role for al-Assad in a transitional government.
Ban: Nobody said this would be easy
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, speaking to CNN's Richard Quest in Davos, urged both sides to persist with the talks.
"We had extremely hard negotiations this week on Syria; nobody said this would be an easy process," he said.
"For the first time after three years of bloodshed, two sides were sitting in the same room," he said.
Ban said that Iran was "one of the important ?regional powers who can contribute to this process" but that he believed he had made the right choice in rescinding an invitation to Tehran to join the talks in Geneva.
The Syrian National Coalition had said it would pull out if Iran was invited, since Tehran has not signed up to the framework agreed in 2012, which envisages a political transition.
"I regretfully made the decision I did. It was of greater importance to have the two sides together," Ban said, referring to the Syrian government and opposition.
While the stakes for the talks are high, observers see little likelihood that the conference will find a way to end the violence in Syria. But analysts say there is hope that progress can be made on improving the situation for the most vulnerable victims of the civil war.
The Syrian National Coalition does not represent all the opposition groups in Syria, making it uncertain that any agreement it may reach in Geneva would be respected on the ground.
A military representative may join the Syrian opposition team later Friday, the opposition members said.
READ: Syria defiant at conference; Kerry rules out al-Assad
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READ: Israeli President Shimon Peres: Hezbollah is 'main killer' in Syria
CNN's Nic Robertson and Elise Labott reported from Geneva for the report written by Laura Smith-Spark in London and Tom Cohen in Washington. CNN's Gayle Edmonds and Saad Abedine contributed to this report.
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