MONTREUX, Switzerland — Talks to end Syria's bloody civil war began with a bitter clash Wednesday over President Bashar al-Assad's future, threatening to collapse the negotiations almost instantly.
The dispute over Assad cast a pall over an international conference that aims to map out a transitional government and ultimately a democratic election for a country mired in fighting that has claimed 130,000 lives and displaced millions.
While diplomats sparred against an Alpine backdrop, government forces and opposition fighters clashed across Syria, activists and state media said.
The two sides seemed impossibly far apart just hours into the talks. Complicating matters, both Assad's delegates and the Western-backed opposition Syrian National Coalition claimed to speak for the Syrian people.
"We did not expect instant breakthroughs . . . No one underestimated the difficulties," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters. "The Syrian people are looking desperately for relief from the nightmare in which they are trapped."
A UN mediator will meet separately with both Syrian sides on Thursday to see if they can even sit together in face-to-face talks due to begin Friday.
The mediator, Lakhdar Brahimi, said both sides had shown some willingness to bend on humanitarian access and local cease-fires and he hoped to build on that common ground.
The US and the Syrian opposition opened the conference by saying that Assad lost his legitimacy when he crushed the once-peaceful protest movement against his regime.
"We really need to deal with reality," said Secretary of State John Kerry. "There is no way — no way possible in the imagination — that the man who has led the brutal response to his own people could regain the legitimacy to govern. One man and those who have supported him can no longer hold an entire nation and a region hostage."
The Syrian response was firm and blunt.
"There will be no transfer of power, and President Bashar Assad is staying," declared Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi.
US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki later criticized the Syrian government's rhetoric as "inflammatory."
Ahmad al-Jarba of the Syrian National Coalition had wavered up to the last minute on whether to attend the peace talks that have been largely opposed by rebel brigades in Syria.
He said any discussion of Assad's continued hold on power would end the talks.
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Syria peace talks become hostile as Assad side fires salvo
Dengan url
http://susuvirus.blogspot.com/2014/01/syria-peace-talks-become-hostile-as.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Syria peace talks become hostile as Assad side fires salvo
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
Syria peace talks become hostile as Assad side fires salvo
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar