International efforts to end the unrest in Syria accelerated today with key talks in Paris and Brussels, amid a push for a new peace conference despite growing divisions within the Syrian opposition.
US Secretary of State John Kerry will meet his Russian and French counterparts in Paris to advance an initiative for an international conference on ending Syria’s conflict.
However Syria’s main opposition group ended a fourth day of talks in Beirut yesterday with little sign of a joint approach to the Russian-US campaign to get all sides to participate.
The talks have been dubbed “Geneva 2” as they would follow a conference last June that produced a peace roadmap which failed to win support, triggering the resignation of Kofi Annan as special envoy on Syria.
Ahead of today’s Paris meeting, the 27 EU foreign ministers are scheduled to meet in Brussels with the bloc deeply divided over whether to arm the Syrian rebels.
After months of bitter argument in Brussels, the issue will come to a head with the ministers to meet ahead of the expiry at midnight on Friday of far-reaching EU sanctions against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, including a weapons embargo.
Britain and France are leading the push to have the arms embargo maintained against Assad but relaxed against the opposition Syrian National Coalition (SNC).
But British-based charity Oxfam has warned that allowing more weapons into Syria “could have devastating consequences” and “fan the flames of the conflict”.
The efforts to restore peace in Damascus come as Syria’s leading opposition group was in total disarray at fractious talks in Istanbul, with discussions on their participation in the US-Russian peace initiative stalled.
There was squabbling over a vote early today on expanding the opposition umbrella group, although the results formalised the entry into the coalition of veteran dissident and Marxist intellectual Michel Kilo.
Though the secular Kilo would bring in several new women and members of Syria’s religious minorities, critics said his entry would shrink the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood and force Saudi control on the coalition.
Syria’s Foreign Minister upped the ante yesterday, saying his Government will take part in a new Geneva peace conference, terming it a “good opportunity for a political solution” to the civil war in Syria.
With the violence in Syria spreading, Walid Muallem said his Government had agreed “in principle” to attend the Geneva peace conference Washington and Moscow are hoping to hold next month.