Syrian Transition Plan Reached by U.S., Russia in Vienna Talks
Source: Bloomberg
Seventeen nations, spurred on by Friday’s deadly attacks in Paris, overcame their differences on how to end Syria’s civil war and adopted a timeline that will let opposition groups help draft a constitution and elect a new government by 2017.
As a first step, the United Nations agreed to convene Syria’s government with opposition representatives by Jan. 1, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Saturday at a joint press conference in Vienna. A cease-fire between the government in Damascus and recognized opposition groups should be in place within six months, according to their statement.
The terrorist attacks in Paris galvanized the diplomats, who at previous talks had been unable to resolve the discord within their ranks. While Russia and Iran had sided with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the U.S. and its regional allies had insisted upon his removal. With diplomats bogged down over the question of Assad, terrorist groups like Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, grew and become more powerful inside Syria.
“It is time to deprive the terrorists of any single kilometer in which to hide,” Kerry said. “There can be no doubt that this crisis is not Syria’s alone to bear.”
Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-11-14/syrian-transition-plan-achieved-by-u-s-allies-kerry-says
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geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)It may have been the smart/right thing to do, but Putin pretty clearly won and they lost.
Next up: Potemkin elections.
840high
(17,196 posts)
BumRushDaShow
(129,549 posts)And Putin lost a bunch of folks on a plane just recently. Although he might not give a damn, his hemming and hawing before admitting the possible cause didn't help with the P.R. put out by his apparatchiks, and will cost some rubles trying to fly the rest of his folks out of Egypt.
Warren Stupidity
(48,181 posts)It was a stupid arrogant neocon policy and it should have been abandoned a long time ago.
Tom Rinaldo
(22,913 posts)They are in N.A.T.O. and border Syria and have been held up to be a role model for non extremist Islamic governments. I'm not saying it was the right call, but the policy was more complex than just another neocon wet dream.
Warren Stupidity
(48,181 posts)The regimes listed were Iraq, Syria, Libya and Iran. You really think it is just coincidence that Iraq and Libya have gotten the treatment and Syria is in progress? I mean seriously, they wrote this shit down and then implemented it, and we are still pretending that it didn't happen.
Tom Rinaldo
(22,913 posts)Yes this fits that script. But I don't lump Obama in with PNAC. He was opposed to the PNAC "strategy". I'm just noting that sometimes the interests of very different players can overlap to leave them pushing for similar moves. Turkey has it's own national agenda separate from that of the U.S. or any of our own ideological players - and that is a factor for us internationally that even a non neocon President like Obama has to give some consideration to.
Cayenne
(480 posts)Kerry has told the Russians to stop bombing al Queda and ISIS rebels. Eventually Kerry will insist on this. Putin will continue the bombing campaign and maybe add his own boots on the ground.
Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)If this process brings peace to Syria, it's not really that important that "Putin clearly won and [the West] lost." And that's a rather tendentious formulation anyway. What did the West want, other than "Assad must go"?
If the West lost, what did it lose? The ability to impose its will on other countries?
