United Nations Envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura announced that while the world body was actively seeking to reignite a political process to the war-torn-country, Damascus has yet to confirm its participation in the upcoming summit in Geneva, which is scheduled for the 28th of November. While the Syrian government and opposition maintain significant gaps that do not predict any positive outcome from the scheduled talks in Geneva, de Mistura emphasized that recent success in bringing about various de-escalation arrangements in the war-torn-country point to a real potential to move toward a genuine political process. De Mistura said, “This crisis, one of the worst in the history of the U.N. now has the potential, real potential to move towards a genuine political process. A clearer map of a de-escalation, cease fire and de-confliction arrangement has emerged largely enabled by Astana and Amman. We see the emergence of international consensus and we must begin to stitch the process into concrete results, enabling Syrians to determine their own future freely,” the UN Chief negotiator for Syria said in a press conference.
The Opposition’s Chief Negotiator, however, said the groups he represents do not have high expectations of the upcoming talks in Geneva, while accusing the Assad regime of applying delaying tactics to obstruct a political solution. Nasr al-Hariri further stressed that as part of any political transition, the opposition demands the ousting of Syrian President Bashar Assad, and would not accept any other alternative.
A Syrian government official told TV7 that “the demands by the Syrian opposition, considering the reality on the ground, are completely and utterly absurd.” The official, who asked to remain anonymous as he was not permitted to talk on the matter, stressed that the government of Damascus has most of Syria under its control, and would not consider negotiating with a group of rebels whom are clearly detached from reality. Nevertheless, the Syrian official indicated his government’s willingness to advance a political process that would ultimately bring about a much-desired political solution – a solution of peace, which the official emphasized “can only be achieved by President Bashar Assad,” he said.