World Powers Reach Syria Compromise - Wall Street Journal

By NOUR MALAS

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Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesU.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, center, speaks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, right, next to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, left, at the opening of talks on Syria Saturday in Geneva.

BEIRUT—Special envoy Kofi Annan warned that the deepening conflict in Syria posed "extreme dangers" to the region and the world, as international powers remained deadlocked in a meeting on how to resolve the bloody crisis.
The meeting in Geneva gathered Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's international critics and supporters in multilateral talks for the first time in the 17-month-long conflict. The so-called Action Group on Syria aims to salvage a peace plan brokered by Mr. Annan in April to which neither the Syrian government nor the opposition abided.
Violence surged in recent months, as the government unleashed heavy artillery including helicopter gunships, and antigovernment rebels became better equipped and more effective. June has been one of the deadliest months in an uprising that began with a peaceful protest movement and has increasingly veered toward civil war.
In opening remarks in Geneva, Mr. Annan, a joint envoy of the United Nations and Arab League on Syria, reprimanded the gathered country delegations for competing agendas that have locked the international community in a stalemate while often fueling the violence inside Syria. In a sign that the diplomatic deadlock was holding hours into the talks on Saturday, a senior U.S. official said the "discussions remain challenging."
"We're continuing to work on this today, but we need a plan that is strong and credible. So we may get there, we may not," the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters in Geneva, according to Reuters.
The meeting gathered foreign ministers from the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council—the U.S., Britain, France, Russia, and China—as well as Turkey, Iraq, Qatar, and Kuwait. European Union and Arab League officials also attended. It excluded Iran—after U.S. objection to the attendance of a Syrian ally seen as aiding the regime in its domestic crackdown—and Saudi Arabia, a main backer of the Syrian opposition.
The idea was to bring together the countries with most influence on both the Syrian government and opposition, to help forge consensus on a transition plan that would then be presented to both sides in Syria. But the special envoy's opening comments also directed a warning to the international parties clashing over Syria—which have either bolstered the Syrian government or rebel fighters throughout the uprising—to halt their rivalries or risk a much wider conflict.
"An international crisis of grave severity now looms," Mr. Annan told the gathering, outlining the threat of regional spillover, extremism and a Syria "filled with weapons—including those of the most insidious kind—and in the midst of one of the most delicately balanced and conflict-torn regions in the world."
"This is the situation we allowed to emerge," he said. "Without unity between you, any action by one will lead to the opposite reaction by another, thwarting the aims of either side. We have already seen this taking place."
The prospect for a breakthrough in Geneva appeared to remain dim. Russia has resisted Western calls for a transition plan that would ask Mr. Assad to give up power. And he ruled out any chance he would accept an internationally brokered solution, telling Iranian television in an interview: "We will not accept any non-Syrian, non-national model."
Mr. Annan, advancing one of the points in his peace plan that calls for a "Syrian-led political process," was expected to propose guidelines on Saturday for a political transition that would involve the creation of a national unity government bringing in the Syrian opposition.
Moscow disagrees with the U.S. on the timing and mechanism of a potential exit for Mr. Assad, a Western official said ahead of the talks this week. Russia also maintains the view that the Syrian president should be involved in a transition process.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague appeared to rule out any compromise from Western nations at the meeting so far. "President Assad and his closest associates cannot credibly lead the process of transition in Syria," he said. "Their failed leadership is now the prime cause of the instability and crisis in Syria. Their involvement would condemn transition to failure before it had begun."
Syria's opposition barely heeded the talks in Geneva, pointing to the escalating violence in the country as proof of the futility of any diplomatic initiative. Activists on Saturday said opposition fighters withdrew from the Damascus suburb of Douma, after a weeklong shelling campaign by government forces intensified on Friday night and sent the rebels retreating.
One opposition group blasted the meeting in Geneva for convening without representation from the Syrian opposition. Building the Syrian State, a new political movement in Damascus, said the international community had "transformed Syria into a field for their international struggles."
"We had hoped that Mr. Annan would push forward the mediation process, which was the basis of his mission, effectively between Syrian parties rather than international parties," its leaders said.
Write to Nour Malas at [email protected]

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