‘Don’t be fooled’ by Syria’s elections, US tells UN after a decade of war

Damascus has done little to help UN-led constitution-writing and election planning

An aerial picture shows Syrians gathering on the roofs of buildings in the rebel-held city of Idlib, as they mark ten years since the nationwide anti-government protests that sparked the country's devastating civil war. AFP

Syrians gather to commemorate the ten years anniversary of the uprising against the Syrian government, in Idlib. EPA

Syrians gather to commemorate the ten years anniversary of the uprising against the Syrian government, in Idlib. EPA

A Syrian boy takes part in a gathering to commemorate the ten years anniversary of the uprising against the Syrian government, in Idlib. EPA

A woman draws a flag on a boy's head as they are gathered to commemorate the ten years anniversary of the uprising against the Syrian government, Idlib. EPA

Protesters wave flags of the Syrian opposition during a demonstration in Syria's rebel-held city of Idlib. AFP

A man holds a girl on his shoulder as she holds a flag of the Syrian opposition during a demonstration in the village of Atme in Syria's rebel-held northwestern province of Idlib close to the border with Turkey. AFP

An aerial picture shows Syrians waving the national flag during a gathering in the rebel-held city of Idlib. AFP

An aerial picture shows Syrians gathering in the rebel-held city of Idlib. AFP

The US has marked the anniversary of Syria's decade-long war by slamming President Bashar Al Assad's government for refusing to engage seriously in peace talks and for planning phoney elections later this year.

Washington's UN envoy Linda Thomas-Greenfield rejected the presidential vote being staged in regime-held areas this summer, saying it was not part of UN-supervised efforts to unite and rebuild a fragmented country.

She spoke at a UN Security Council meeting on Syria characterised by stark differences between the US, Russia and others on the conflict, and after thousands of Syrians on Monday staged an anti-Al Assad protest in Idlib, the country’s last rebel-held bastion.

“I would ask the international community to not be fooled by the coming Syrian presidential elections,” Ms Thomas-Greenfield told the 15-nation council.

“These elections will neither be free nor fair. They will not legitimise the Assad regime.”

At the same meeting, UN peace envoy Geir Pedersen lamented how the Syrian government's crackdown on pro-democracy uprisings in March 2011 quickly spiralled into a multi-front civil war that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and forced millions from their homes.

“The Syrian tragedy will go down as one of the darkest chapters in recent history,” said Mr Pedersen.

“The Syrian people are among the greatest victims of this century.”

He described limited progress on the Syrian Constitutional Committee, which comprises representatives of Mr Al Assad’s government, opposition and civil society, and has the mandate to draw up a new constitution leading to UN-supervised elections.

Mr Pedersen said he was negotiating between the government and opposition leaders in a bid to launch the sixth round of constitutional talks. The fifth session ended in January with Damascus rejecting proposals.

Speaking with reporters after UN council talks, the envoy described an opening for new, invigorated peace negotiations after a year of “relative calm” in north-western Syria, where a ceasefire brokered by Russia and Turkey has reduced levels of violence.

Mr Pedersen said he had met with government, opposition and foreign figures to find ways of “consolidating this calm” and rolling it out in other parts of the fragmented country as a “true nationwide ceasefire”.

“There is a way forward, but we need to find a way around what I call the ‘you-first syndrome’ that has dominated much of the diplomacy around Syria for the last decade,” said the Norwegian diplomat.

“All players, including the Syrian government and opposition, and key international players will need to be ready to identify not only what they realistically hope to achieve, but what they can put on the table.”

Few analysts expect the committee to make real progress. Fighting has largely ceased and forces backing Mr Al Assad, with Russian and Iranian support, recaptured most of the country and the president has few reasons to seriously negotiate with opponents.

Ms Thomas-Greenfield said Damascus has “not taken a single step” to pursue a peace deal with the opposition and urged Russia, Syria’s main ally on the UN council, to press Damascus to “quit stalling”.

A decade of Syrian war – in pictures

Syrian soldiers are seen cheering President Bashar Al Assad during his visit to Al Habit on the southern edges of the Idlib province, in a picture released on October 22, 2019. AFP / Syrian Presidency Facebook page

A Turkish gendarme retrieves the body of Syrian refugee Alan Kurdi from a beach in Turkey. Reuters

The guided-missile destroyer 'USS Porter' conducts strikes while in the Mediterranean Sea, on April 7, 2017. AFP / US NAVY

A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency on October 31, 2013, shows the remains of a mortar after an alleged mortar attack by rebel fighters on the Damascus mixed Christian-Druze suburb of Jaramana. AFP / Sana

Displaced Syrians from the south of Idlib province sit out in the open in the countryside west of the town of Dana in the north-west Syrian region on December 23, 2019. AFP

This picture shows a general view of an overcrowded displacement camp near the village of Qah near the Turkish border in Syria's north-west Idlib province, on October 28, 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic crisis. AFP

A picture taken on March 23, 2019, shows the last ISIS bastion in the eastern Syrian village of Baghuz after the defeat of the group. The Kurdish-led forces pronounced the end of ISIS regime on March 23, 2019, after flushing out the diehard militants from their very last bastion in eastern Syria. AFP

Anti-government activists gesture as they gather on the streets of Daraa, 100 kilometres south of the capital Damascus, on March 23, 2011. AFP

Syria's President Bashar Al Assad heading a cabinet meeting in the presidential palace in Damascus in 2013. Sana / AFP

A picture taken on October 3, 2015 shows a Russian army pilot leaving the cockpit of a Russian Sukhoi Su-25 ground attack aircraft at the Hmeimim airbase in the Syrian province of Latakia. AFP

Members of the Free Syrian Army raise their weapons during a patrol in Idlib in north-west Syria on February 18, 2012. AFP

Syrian President Bashar Al Assad is shown shaking hands with government troops in Eastern Ghouta, in the leader's first trip to the former rebel enclave outside Damascus in years, in this handout picture released by the Syrian Presidency on March 18, 2018. Syrian Presidency Facebook page / AFP

Militant fighters wave flags as they take part in a military parade along the streets of Syria's northern Raqqa province, on June 30, 2014. Reuters