DEVELOPMENTS
— A U.S. cargo ship prepared to sail Monday on a mission to destroy dozens of containers of deadly chemical weapons being removed from Syria as part of international efforts to dismantle that country’s poison gas and nerve agent program.
— On Monday, a second shipment of chemical weapons was loaded onto Danish and Norwegian ships at the port of Latakia in Syria, according to a statement from the U.N. and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. The ships were expected to stay in international waters off Syria waiting for additional loads.
— A senior figure in an al-Qaida-linked group in Syriaan — an Iraqi who went by the nom de guerre of Haji Bakr — was killed in a bloody dispute with rival rebel factions that has raged for more than three weeks across opposition-held parts of the country, activists and an Iraqi intelligence official said Monday.
— Associated Press
The key issue of a transitional government to replace President Bashar Assad blocked any progress Monday in Syrian peace talks, described by one delegate as “a dialogue of the deaf.”
The chief U.N. mediator expressed frustration over inflammatory public remarks by the two sides as he sought to identify some less-contentious issues in hopes of achieving any progress at all at the bargaining table.
But even the most modest attempts at confidence-building measures faltered — including humanitarian aid convoys to besieged parts of the central city of Homs and the release of detainees. Veteran mediator Lakhdar Brahimi somberly declared at the end of the day that he had little to report.
“There are no miracles here,” Brahimi said, adding that both sides nevertheless appeared to have the will to continue the discussions. Asked how he planned to bridge the enormous gap between the two sides, the veteran diplomat quipped: “Ideas, I’ll take them with great pleasure.”
The gulf between the two sides was on full display at a turbulent morning session in which the delegations from the opposition and the Syrian government faced off on the question of Assad’s future.
The Western-backed Syrian National Coalition wants an interim replacement for Assad, reiterating at every opportunity that the stated goal of the peace conference, agreed on by international powers in preliminary talks in June, is to establish a transitional government with full executive powers.
But Assad, whose troops have a tenuous upper hand in Syria, has said he has no intention of stepping down and, on the contrary, may run again for president later this year. His delegates have capitalized on the ascendance of Islamic militants, saying the priority at the peace conference was to find ways to combat terrorism.
“We came here with the intention of discussing a transitional governing body, and they came with the intention of consecrating Bashar Assad’s presence,” said Rima Fleihan, a member of the coalition’s negotiating team.
Murhaf Jouejati of the coalition said the meeting ended on a “sour note,” and the session was broken up by Brahimi after the government delegation became confrontational.
“We thought there was no point in continuing this since it was going to be a dialogue of the deaf,” Jouejati said.
Syria’s uprising began in March 2011 with largely peaceful protests that eventually turned into an insurgency and full-blown civil war after a harsh military crackdown. The war has become a proxy conflict between regional powerhouses Iran and Saudi Arabia, with hints of a throwback to the Cold War as Russia and the United States back opposite sides.
Despite the rancorous rhetoric outside the conference room, both sides have said they won’t withdraw from the talks.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said the U.S. was “realistic about how difficult this is going to be, but we are completely convinced that this is the only way forward for Syria, and that’s through negotiations.”
On Sunday, after three days of talks, a tentative agreement was reached for the evacuation of women and children trapped in Homs before aid convoys go in. As of Monday night, there was no progress on the ground.
Brahimi cited security problems for part of the delay.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the fighting, estimated that 1,200 women, children and elderly people were trapped in besieged areas of the old quarter of Homs.
The opposition accused authorities of blocking a convoy of 12 trucks trying to get into the embattled city and said, “We will judge the regime by what it does, not by what it says.”
Bouthaina Shaaban, an Assad adviser, dismissed the aid effort for Homs as a distraction aimed at bolstering the opposition’s credentials.
Homs Governor Talal Barrazi said the only obstacle to the flow of food into rebel-held areas was “some cases of sniper fire by terrorist groups.”
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