THE latest diplomatic effort to end the tragedy of the war in Syria ended almost as soon as it started. Staffan de Mistura, the UN’s special envoy to Syria (pictured), convened peace talks between the Syrian government, some rebel factions and their respective sponsors in Geneva on January 29th. These were expected to continue for at least six months. But on February 3rd, he announced they had been suspended, saying: “I have concluded, frankly, that after the first week of preparatory talks there is more work to be done, not only by us but by the stakeholders.” This did not mean the failure of talks, Mr de Mistura added, but he was “not prepared to have talks for the sake of talks”. He expressed the hope that they would resume no later than Feb 25th.
With no real end in sight to the bloodshed, diplomats turned to the question of how to manage the appalling humanitarian consequences of a war that has raged for five years. Just hours after the Geneva talks were halted, a major international conference opened in London to drum up aid for Syrian refugees.
The suspension of peace talks is directly related to what is happening on the...Continue reading
Source: Middle East and Africa http://ift.tt/1NSfUBI
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