Moscow Hosts New Round of Syria Talks
Local Editor
Talks on ending the Syrian crisis open in Moscow on Monday, but little progress is expected on resolving the shifting conflict.
Instead, the discussions are expected to focus on humanitarian issues.
"It will be the first meeting after the US-Iranian nuclear deal, and US Secretary of State John Kerry declined to rule out talking to President Bashar al-Assad," said Karim Bitar of the Paris-based Institute for International and Strategic Studies.
Syria's government will be represented by its UN envoy Bashar al-Jaafari, and members of the opposition, the National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change [NCCDC], will attend.
Ahead of the meeting a source close to Syrian government delegation stated that the delegations "will only discuss 'soft' subjects on which agreement might be found."
"You cannot say that these consultations will have any major results," Russian Middle East expert Boris Dolgov said.
"It is just one step, albeit important, on the path towards stopping the crisis in Syria."
Yehya Aziz, a member of the NCCDC's executive committee, said that the talks were expected to focus mostly on humanitarian issues, and the possibility of reviving a political process based on previous negotiations in Switzerland.
"The talks will only discuss 'soft' subjects on which agreement might be found," one source close to the regime delegation confirmed.
The diplomat said one proposal now being floated would see Assad stay in power for two or three more years to prepare a transition, particularly given Russian and US fears about the consequences if his regime collapsed suddenly.
"This solution would allow all the parties to save face," one opposition member involved in the discussions said.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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