Date fixed for Syrian peace conference. But doubts remain
New York City
(AsiaNews / Agencies ) - The UN Secretary General Ban Ki- moon has announced that,
the long-awaited peace conference on Syria will be held in Geneva on January 22.
The
UN , the U.S. , Russia , the Arab League have tried for months to bring
together stakeholders and put an end to the conflict that has been destroying
the country for two and a half years. But
even now there are fears that some of the parties will abandon the negotiations
or hinder them on the ground.
Ban
Ki -moon said that the next conference (called " Geneva II") should
be based on the statement drawn up by the UN Group of action in 2012.
This
statement calls for an immediate end to the violence and formation "on the
basis of mutual consent" of a transitional government with full powers
over the army and security forces, which will include members of the opposition
and members related to Assad .
Ban
stressed that the parties must come to Geneva "with the serious intention
to end a war that has already claimed more than 100 thousand deaths, nearly 9
million people uprooted from their homes, leaving untold numbers missing and
prisoners ."
The
Conference scheduled has already been scheduled several times but so far has
never been held because of numerous vetoes and divisions .
Assad
had never agreed to sit in front of the opponents , all branded as
"terrorists " , the opposition wanted to be sure that Assad had no
future in Syria. At
the same time , the various opposition groups are divided over who has the
right to represent the conference and several of them - especially radical
Islamists - plan to continue their holy war in any case.
In
the recent past, the U.S. ( and Saudi Arabia ) had vetoed the participation of
Iran, Assad's sponsors . Instead Tehran's participation
is backed by Russia .
It
is still unclear if all these problems are solved. Ban
Ki-moon has, however, stated that he expects "all regional and
international partners to demonstrate their significant support for
constructive negotiations "
Lakhdar
Brahimi , the UN and the Arab League envoy for peace in Syria , said the Geneva
II list of participants has not yet been established, but he thinks it will
include Iran , and Saudi Arabia - which finances the rebels.
Brahimi
will meet December 20 with representatives of the U.S. and Russia to attempt to
draw up the list of participants .
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21/01/2014
