(CNN) — The U.N. and Arab League point man on Syria praised the top U.S. and Russian diplomats Wednesday for their latest efforts to forge a solution to the Syrian conflict.
Lakhdar Brahimi called remarks from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry “the first hopeful news concerning that unhappy country in a very long time.”
Speaking at a joint news conference Tuesday in Moscow, Kerry said he and Lavrov had agreed “as soon as is practicable, possibly and hopefully, by the end of this month” to “seek to convene an international conference.”
The aim would be to implement last summer’s Geneva communique brokered by Russia and the United States outlining how a transitional government could be formed.
If the conference takes place, it would be the first to bring together representatives of the warring sides, which have been unable to negotiate a settlement to the two-year conflict that has claimed more than 70,000 lives.
The opposition has adamantly refused any role for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in any transitional government. But Lavrov, without naming al-Assad, said he is “not interested in the fate of certain persons.”
READ MORE HERE: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/08/world/meast/syria-civil-war
Categories: Arab World, Asia, Russia, Syria, United States
To insist on the departure of Bashar Assad – as if it would solve anything – is very naive. Nothing would change ‘on the ground’ if Bashar Assad left Syria today.