Enab Baladi Issue # 101– Sun, Jan. 27, 2014 – editorial

The Syrian government “ignored its pains”, and agreed to attend the conference to “serve Syria’s best interests”; while the Syrian opposition was pushed by the “interests of the Syrian people, the children of Syria, and Syria’s future” to attend and negotiate with the delegation that represents “murderers in Damascus”.Thus the long-awaited conference, Geneva II, was finally held amid heating disputes, conflicting opinions and low expectations.

Most people have not held their breath over the conference which, supposedly, begins where Geneva I left off, with the objective to launch the negotiation process between the opposition and the Syrian regime delegations. The Syrian opposition still divided over advancing its backers’ agendas, and still lacks actual control over the opposition fighters on the ground; whereas the Syrian regime’s delegation came only to “seriously tackle counterterrorism issues”, particularly confident due to the frequent mention of Al Qaeda recently.

No one is expecting the conference will work a miracle to end the ongoing conflict in Syria; yet the Syrian people’s expectations –or rather hopes – of an agreement over humanitarian aids to be reached have not been met yet; furthermore, worries and concerns over the post-Geneva-II phase are arousing among the Syrians more than their concerns about the conference itself.

And though everyone came to realize and to acknowledge that a military “solution” will not provide an actually solution to the conflict, both the regime patrons and the opposition military backers continue to pump money, weapons and even fighters into Syria, knowing they will prevent their ally’s military defeat,  but not to secure its decisive victory over its opponents.

As for the success of pressures exerted over the Syrian government to dismantle its chemical weapons’ arsenal, followed by the success in convening it to attend Geneva II conference, it clearly indicates the developing US-Russian understanding, and the increased diplomatic traffic between Moscow and Washington that have become the main, if not the sole, co-owners of the Syrian conflict.  And yet, the implications of such a budding relationship on the Syrian scene are unclear.

The Syrian regime was pushed to attend the conference under pressure, yet the pressure was not enough to convince it to give up the power, or even to cease violence.

Geneva II conference will amount to nothing but disappointment for, up till now, it has not handed the ticket for the train for Al Assad’s exit, or even showed the card to impose the end of the bloodshed of the Syrian people by barrels of explosives.