Bad for the Syrians

UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura declared a “pause” in the tortuous UN-mediated talks to end the war in Syria, postponing them for February 25.

While acknowledging that after the first week of preparatory talks “there is more work to be done, not only by us but by the stakeholders”, de Mistura declared that he “won’t talk for the sake of talking”.

“Pause” in this case, and for most people, could easily be taken to be a euphemism for failure, but the UN envoy refuses to admit that the talks failed, only saying that there is a need for immediate help from international backers led by the US and Russia.

After shuttling for days between the two sides, he must have found the gap between them still too wide and in need to be somehow bridged before talks can start in earnest.

In declaring the “pause”, de Mistura said on Wednesday: “I have frankly concluded that after the first week of preparatory talks there is still more work to be done, not only by us but also by the stakeholders,” which all form the International Syria Support Group.

The UN envoy was upbeat at the beginning of the slated Geneva talks, but he saw his efforts collapse due to the different readings of UN Security Council Resolution 2245, which should provide the basis for peace discussions by the opposing sides.

The sticking points have been known right from the beginning. The opposition wants the Syrian army to lift the siege on towns and wants detainees released before it agrees to sit for talks; it also wants a ceasefire declared during the negotiations as a goodwill gesture.

US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, are due to meet in Munich on February 11 for the annual Munich security conference. Hope is pinned on the two to find a way out of the stalemate in the peace talks on Syria.

But if the two superpowers cannot themselves agree on common grounds for these talks, it is hard to see how the Syrian opposition groups, propped up by different powers with different interests, and the Syrian government will come to agree on anything.

Unfortunately, the ones who pay the price are the innocent Syrians who will have to endure more bombings and destruction until the two sides can agree on what is best for their people, if they do at all.

As such, the most sensible thing to do next is to have the UN Security Council impose a ceasefire in order to save lives until the two sides come to their senses and agree on their negotiating positions.