The UN Special Envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, pointed to the need to reach a political solution in Syria this year during closed meetings held yesterday in Davos. He calls on the international community to take a firm stance, stressing that “new peace talks cannot be held in early 2015 as the country we want to save will be non-existent.”
“The size destruction is enormous, and Syria cannot take any more of this,” he added. “There is a third party to the conflict a few kilometers away, which is ISIS that may take advantage of the current situation. We are looking for a new approach, and everyone has to recognize that there is no military solution in Syria.” With regard to the Moscow meeting, de Mistura said that it is not yet clear which opposition factions will be represented after the Syrian Coalition refused to participate. “We should support any initiative for intra-Syrian dialogue, and we welcome the intra-opposition meeting held in Egypt. What is more important than looking into political solution and political details to the Syrian people is a decline in the level of violence. Securing a ceasefire in a number of areas will give hope.”
Khaled Khoja, president of the Syrian Coalition, said earlier that Russia, Assad’s staunchest ally, is still insisting on keeping him in power through its so-called initiatives aimed at reaching a settlement for the conflict during an interview with the Turkish newspaper, Star. “In its current form, Russia’s so-called initiative will surely not be accepted by the Syrian people,” Khoja stresses. He attributes ISIS’s surge in the region to the “reluctance of the friends of the Syrian people to stop Assad’s killing machine, especially the failure to supply the FSA with advanced weapons needed to counter regime forces.” (Source: Syrian Coalition + Al Sharq al-Awsat)
