Syria peace talks resume in Geneva but little hope of breakthrough

A stalemate persists over most of the toughest issues, notably Syrian president Bashar Al Assad’s fate, with the opposition insisting he quit power and the government declaring the president’s future off limits for discussion

A rebel fighter walks past a shutter bearing the Syrian flag in the village of Rahbet Khattab, Hama province, on March 23, 2017. Omar Haj Kadour / AFP

GENEVA // UN-backed Syria peace talks resumed in Geneva on Thursday, with little hope of a breakthrough and the emboldened regime seen as unlikely to make concessions.

UN deputy special envoy Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy met separately with government negotiators and the High Negotiations Committee (HNC), the main Syrian opposition grouping, at hotels in the Swiss city.

“We have started today preliminary talks,” Mr Ramzy said after his meeting with Syrian president Bashar Al Assad’s representatives.

“We hope we will be starting substantive discussions tomorrow.”

Mr Ramzy’s boss, UN mediator Staffan de Mistura, was wrapping up a diplomatic tour of the key powers shaping the conflict, which included trips to Moscow, Riyadh and Ankara.

Mr De Mistura was due back in Geneva on Thursday evening to take charge of the negotiations that have yielded little in four previous rounds.

A stalemate persists over most of the toughest issues, notably Mr Al Assad’s fate, with the opposition insisting he quit power and the government declaring the president’s future off limits for discussion.

HNC delegation chief Nasr Al Hariri said after meeting Mr Ramzy that his camp was in Geneva to “guarantee the departure of Bashar Al Assad and his clique”.

On the agenda for this round of talks is governance – a political transition, the constitution and elections – as well as counter-terrorism, at the request of Damascus.

Mr De Mistura tried to strike an optimistic note when the previous round ended last month, insisting that “everything is ready” for the talks to move forward while reiterating his view that there is no military solution to Syria’s devastating civil war.

But analysts disagree with the UN envoy, putting the chances of compromise at an all-time low, due in part to the government’s increasingly strong position on the ground.

“My assessment is that there will not be a formal political settlement at all,” said Yezid Sayigh, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Centre.

“Regime advances make this almost a certainty.”

Since Russia launched a military intervention in support of Mr Al Assad in 2015, the Syrian regime has gained the upper hand, retaking the former rebel bastion of Aleppo late last year.

For Syria specialist Thomas Pierret, as “the regime continues to gain ground ... there’s no reason for it to make the slightest concession”.

But HNC spokesman Salem Al Meslet said late on Wednesday that he hoped this round would “see real talks, not only a waste of time”.

Talks resumed as state media and an opposition monitoring group reported that Syrian government forces were besieging the last ISIL stronghold in the northern province of Aleppo, weeks after launching an offensive to retake the entire province.

The Syrian Central Military Media said Syrian troops launched the Deir Hafer siege late on Wednesday after capturing nearby areas.

Meanwhile, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Syrian troops had now cut the road linking Deir Hafer with Raqqa province.

The Observatory also reported intense clashes in the central province of Hama, where insurgent groups spearheaded by an Al Qaeda-led group have launched a wide offensive, capturing dozens of villages and towns over two days.

The Levant Liberation Committee said its fighters captured three more villages on Thursday morning.

Meanwhile, US aircraft ferried Syrian Kurdish fighters and allies behind ISIL lines to spearhead a major ground assault on the strategic ISIL-held town of Tabqa in Raqqa province, which borders Aleppo.

That airlift marked a deepening US involvement in Syria’s conflict ahead of a looming battle for the extremist group’s de facto capital, the city of Raqqa.

The operation was part of what Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon described as a large, high-priority offensive to secure the area around Tabqa and the associated Tabqa Dam.

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces said on Thursday that its fighters, along with military advisers form the US-led coalition, landed near Tabqa on Tuesday night with their equipment and vehicles, and have already secured a wide area.

“It has become a military base to launch our operations on the west bank of the river until eventually liberating all the countryside of Raqqa,” the SDF said.

Tabqa lies 45 kilometres west of Raqqa. ISIL controls the town as well as the Tabqa Dam on the Euphrates River which supplies electric power to the area and a military airfield nearby.

The SDF said the aim of the operation is to capture the town, its dam and the power stations. It called on all civilians to stay away from ISIL positions and for young men to join the anti-ISIL force.

* Agence France-Presse, Associated Press