Second round of Syria talks end in impasse

The second round of Syrian peace talks ended with no agreement and no specific date set to meet again

A boy holds his baby sister saved from under rubble, who survived what activists say was an airstrike by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Al Assad in Masaken Hanano in Aleppo on February 14, 20Show more

NEW YORK // The US president Barack Obama has said he is seeking ways to increase pressure on Bashar Al Assad’s government as the second round of Syrian peace talks in Geneva ended on Saturday in an impasse.

The final day of talks lasted less than 30 minutes and ended with the Syrian political opposition and government delegations agreeing only to meet again in principle but without setting a specific date.

International mediator Lakhdar Brahimi apologised to Syrians at a news conference afterwards, saying, “I am very, very sorry, and I apologise to the Syrian people that their hopes which were very, very high that something will happen here.”

Mr Brahimi said he had proposed to both sides that to save time, the first day of the next round of talks should deal with the Syrian government’s stated priority, ending violence and terrorism, while the second would focus on how to create a transitional governing body (TGB), which the Geneva Communique agreed to by all sides in 2012 states as the goal of the talks.

But even this agenda was not agreed upon, Mr Brahimi said, and he appeared to blame Syrian government intransigence.

“Unfortunately the government has refused, which raises the suspicion of the opposition that in fact the government doesn’t want to discuss the TGB at all,” he said.

France and Britain both blamed the Al Assad regime for the collapse of the talks.

Britain’s foreign secretary William Hague said the failure to agree on an agenda for future rounds of talks was a “serious setback in the search for peace in Syria, and the responsibility for it lies squarely with the Assad regime”.

The second round also ended with acrimony between the main sponsors of the talks, the United States and Russia, as tensions mounted over Moscow’s inability or unwillingness to do more to pressure Syria to take up the question of a transitional government.

On Friday, Russian officials accused the Syrian opposition and its supporters of prioritising “regime change” over all else.

Meanwhile, as the Syrian regime forces appeared to be preparing to assault the rebel-held town of Yabroud, near the border with Lebanon, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the weeks since the talks began were the bloodiest of the entire war.

More than 3,400 were killed this month, according to the London-based organisation, bringing the overall death toll to more than 140,000 since 2011.

After acknowledging that US strategy to help end the conflict through dialogue was failing, Mr Obama said that he was looking at new options for increasing pressure on Damascus.

“There will be some intermediate steps that we can take to apply more pressure to the Assad regime, and we’re going to be continuing to work with all the parties concerned to try to move forward on a diplomatic solution,” Mr Obama said after a meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah II in California. He did not say what those steps might entail.

Diplomats in Geneva told the New York Times that the US administration might increase the scale of a CIA programme to arm and train rebels or even consider the threat of military strikes to force the delivery of aid to civilians.

The US has also reportedly increased its financial support for the rebel groups it supports, giving millions of dollars for fighters’ salaries.

Saudi Arabia, which supports some of the same rebel groups as the US, reportedly has agreed to provide anti-aircraft missiles to the rebels for the first time.

The US has long opposed giving such weapons, which can down commercial airliners, for fear they could fall into the hands of terrorists.

Riyadh and other western allies had complied but the Wall Street Journal reported that it will now begin distributing the weapons to bolster a rebel offensive aimed at taking parts of Damascus’ southern suburbs that could force the regime to be more willing to compromise in Geneva.

Mr Obama also pledged $1 billion in loan guarantees to Jordan. The money is meant to help Washington’s close ally cope with the destabilising flow of nearly 600,000 Syrian refugees as well as the loss of natural gas from Egypt.

* With reporting by Agence France-Presse, Reuters and Associated Press