Geneva, Sunday. Syria’s regime
on Saturday accused Israel and the United States for undermining
UN-brokered peace talks and blamed the opposition’s refusal to settle
the issue of “terrorism” for the deadlock.
“Everybody is trying his best to undermine the
whole process, either Israel or unfortunately the Americans, or even the
sponsors of the so-called coalition and the opposition,” Syria’s top
negotiator Bashar Jaafari told reporters after a second round of talks
wrapped up fruitlessly.
Jaafari, who is also Syria’s ambassador to the
United Nations headquarters in New York, pointed to President Barack
Obama’s pledge on Friday to take unspecified “intermediate steps” to
pressure the regime.
He also accused Washington of pushing the Syrian
rebels to “escalate militarily” notably by stepping up fighting on the
country’s southern border with Jordan.
“Those people are not really committed towards
guaranteeing the success of the Geneva conference. On the contrary,
there was no goodwill at all,” Jaafari said.
The Geneva talks, the first round of which was in
January, mark the biggest international push to end three years of war
in Syria. They were initiated by the United States, which backs the
opposition, and Russia, a key ally of the regime of President Bashar
al-Assad. The regime insists the talks must focus on “terrorism” -- its
broad-brush term for a rebel movement it claims is fuelled by foreign
jihadists and Gulf money. But the opposition says the negotiations must
centre on bringing democracy to Syria, and accuse the regime of terror
tactics through its brutal military methods. Wrangling over the agenda
prevented any progress in the second round, which began on Monday.
UN mediator Lakhdar Brahimi told reporters on
Saturday that an agenda had been agreed for a future meeting -- starting
with the issue of violence before moving on the following day to
political change -- but that the regime rejected that plan.
Jaafari said there was a “very simple reason”.
“We cannot move from item one, to item two or item three or item four,
without fully considering this item and concluding by a common vision of
this item by the two sides,” he explained. (AFP)
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