Syria talks get off to rocky start with clash over Assad

Peace talks intended to carve a path out of Syria’s civil war got off to a rocky start yesterday as a bitter clash over President Bashar Assad’s future threatened to cause the collapse of negotiations before they even begin.

The dispute over Assad cast a pall over the start of an international peace conference that aims to map out a transitional government and ultimately democratic elections for the war-torn nation.

While diplomats sparred against a pristine Alpine backdrop, Syrian forces and opposition fighters clashed across a wide area from Aleppo and Idlib in the north to Daraa in the south, where the uprising against Assad began three years ago.

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The US and the Syrian opposition opened the conference by saying the Syrian leader lost his legitimacy when he crushed a once-peaceful protest movement.

In a strong riposte, Syrian foreign minister Walid al-Moallem countered that terrorists and foreign meddling had ripped his country apart. He refused to give up the podium despite requests from Ban Ki-moon.

“You live in New York. I live in Syria,” he angrily told the UN chief. “I have the right to give the Syrian version here in this forum. After three years of suffering, this is my right.”

Less than three hours into the peace talks in the Swiss city of Montreux, the two sides seemed impossibly far apart.

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But Foreign Secretary William Hague urged the warring sides in the civil war to “put an end to the devastation of your country” by staying at the negotiating table.

He called for a firm timetable for the creation of a transitional government acceptable to both sides, along with ceasefire agreements to allow full and immediate humanitarian access to the millions of people who have been forced from their homes by the fighting.

Mr Hague urged both sides to “seize the chance” for peace. “The only way to end the bloodshed and deal with extremist threats is to reach an inclusive political settlement that takes into account the needs and aspirations of all Syria’s communities, with a Syrian-led political process leading to a transition, enabling the Syrian people independently and democratically to determine their future,” said Mr Hague.

“These talks are only the start of a process that will require commitment and courage, but I urge both sides to remain at the negotiating table.

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“To them I say: this is your opportunity to put an end to the devastation of your country. Now is the time to choose to save a generation of Syrian children from violence and trauma, to end the siege being laid to ancient towns and cities, to begin to repair the rich fabric of Syrian society and to spare millions of refugees the prospect of years of exile, homelessness and deprivation.”

Opening the talks, Mr Ban acknowledged that the delegates faced “formidable” challenges and called on both the regime and opposition to negotiate in good faith.

“We know that it has been an extremely difficult path to reach this point. We have lost valuable time and many, many lives,” he said. “Let me not mince words, the challenges before you and before all of us are formidable. But your presence here raises hope.”

US Secretary of State John Kerry made clear that the White House believes that there can be no place in any transitional government for Assad, whom he blamed for killing and torturing his own countrymen.

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The only obstacle standing in the way of the “roadmap to peace” set out in Geneva was “the stubborn clinging to power of one man, one family”, he said.

Photographs released in the last few days had shown “systematic torture and execution of thousands of prisoners” in what Mr Kerry described as “an appalling assault not only on human lives but on human dignity and on every standard by which the international community tries to organise itself”.

Damascus has denied allegations of abuses after the emergence of the gruesome images.

The talks began only after the UN’s last-minute withdrawal of an invitation to Iran to attend.