Syrian Peace Talks off to a Bumpy Start

After the declaration of the cease fire in December 2016, Peace talks were held in the capital of Kazakhstan, Astana, on January 23. Russia, Turkey, Iran, and Syria all sent delegates to represent their respective countries in the peace talks. The United States did not send a delegate because all staff was needed in the white house to accompany the transition after the inauguration. Instead, the ambassador to Kazakhstan attended the talks as simply a viewer. The hope is that these talks will hope to clarify and clean up the cease fire agreement from last month between the three sponsor countries: Russia, Syria, and Turkey. The rebels, backed by Turkey, have been struggling ever since the forfeiture of eastern Aleppo, one of five main cities that the rebels occupied. Until the ceasefire, Russia was launching air strikes on Aleppo to drive out any remaining rebels. Unfortunately, on the first day of the talks, the “diplomatic talks quickly devolved into harsh words and competing accusations” (Barnard, First Day of Syria Peace Talks Quickly Descends into Quarreling). The bickering began after the rebels called out the government for being a “bloody despotic regime” and then climaxed when the government accused the rebels of being an armed terrorist group. The next days were also met with little success, but there was little hope for any positive outcomes from this conference because of the coming conference in Geneva. There is more hope for a successful treaty at this conference because it a UN sponsored meeting with representatives from all countries and groups who have been involved in the 6 year conflict. Salma Abdelaziz, writer for CNN, believes that in Geneva, countries will come to an agreement because they have been having secret meetings to discuss different plans of action or results of the treaty negotiations. Unfortunately, it was announced that the Geneva conference will be postponed indefinitely and hopefully there will be word soon about why they postponed the conference and when it will now be.

Quint Heaton

Sources:

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/22/middleeast/syria-kazakhstan-talks/index.html

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/23/middleeast/syria-peace-talks-astana/

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/23/world/middleeast/syria-astana-talks-russia-turkey.html?_r=0

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-administration-not-sending-a-delegation-to-syria-peace-talks/2017/01/21/7e42cc5c-dff8-11e6-ad42-f3375f271c9c_story.html?utm_term=.940aade5d0cd