Frustrated Western powers call for talks to end Syria conflict

Western powers called Saturday for talks between the Syrian regime and the opposition in a bid to end a war that has cost more than 300,000 lives but desperation hung over a meeting in Paris.
With Bashar Assad’s forces pursuing an onslaught on opposition-held areas of Aleppo assisted by Russian air power, the West’s powerlessness was evident as leading powers and Gulf states gathered for discussions with the opposition.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said the meeting was “an effort to try to do more than wring our hands and express frustration.”
Kerry said the regime’s “indiscriminate bombing” of Aleppo amounted to “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity” and he called for Russia and Assad’s other backers Iran to show “a little grace” and help end it.
After the talks that included opposition representative Riad Hijab, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault urged a diplomatic solution to the nearly six-year-old conflict.
“We need to tie down the conditions for a genuine political transition, and negotiations must resume on a clear basis within the framework of the UN resolution 2254,” he said.
Ayrault said the opposition offered to participate in negotiations without conditions. But a diplomatic source told AFP the opposition required a political transition in Syria before it would agree to take part.
Ayrault said that even if regime’s forces regained control of Aleppo, many other areas of Syria would still be in the hands of the opposition or radical groups and the fighting would rage on.
“What sort of peace is it if it’s only the peace of cemeteries?” he asked.
His British counterpart Boris Johnson had the same message for Assad. “There can be no military solution in Syria,” Johnson said. “We must keep pushing for a return to a political process with the credibility necessary for all parties to commit to an end to all the fighting.”
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the international community was stunned by the extent of the suffering in Aleppo.
“We demand that the regime, but also Iran and Russia, let people leave the conflict zone,” Steinmeier said.
US and Russian officials will meet in Geneva on Sunday for what Kerry called discussions “to save the lives... of people innocently caught up” in the fighting.
But Kerry admitted his expectations of those talks were “very constrained.”
The UN’s Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said the world is watching “the last steps” in the Aleppo battle and evacuating civilians must be a priority.
Airstrikes and regime rocket fire battered the last remaining opposition districts on Saturday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
An AFP correspondent in west Aleppo could hear the hum of airplanes circling above, coupled with bombardment and machine-gun fire on the city’s east. 

Source: Arab News