UN invitations to Syrian peace talks spark controversy

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UN invitations to Syrian peace talks spark controversy



GENEVA: -- The United Nations Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, has invited the Syrian government and opposition to peace talks due to start in Geneva on Friday.

The news came in a UN statement on Tuesday but it didn’t specify exactly which groups have been invited, and the matter is already the subject of disagreement.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov addressed a press conference in Moscow:

“Some members of the international Syria Support Group, as I understand, insist that only those opposition groups that met last year in Riyadh are worthy of representing the Syrian opposition, and all the others should be left out. This is an obvious violation of UN resolution number 2254.”

But the Turkish government is vehemently opposed to the Syrian Kurdish group the PYD taking part, as it sees them as an extension of the Turkish separatist PKK, who have been fighting a militant campaign in Turkey for an independent Kurdish state.

“It is unacceptable to let a terrorist organisation join opposition parties and attend negotiation talks,” Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told a boisterous meeting in parliament. “They can’t sit together with honourable opposition groups fighting the Syrian regime. If somebody wants to see the PYD at the table, they should be on the same side as the Syrian regime.”

Turkey is also against the participation of the YPG mililtia, who are affiliated to the PYD.

But the YPG is an important partner to the US in the fight against ISIL.

There’s also some doubt as to whether the Syrian opposition will attend the talks at all. It has accused the United States of adopting unacceptable Iranian and Russian ideas for solving the conflict.


-- (c) Copyright Euronews 2016-01-27

[retarius]

Good looking start to the peace process. Not unexpected.

[Krataiboy]

The more one hears about the complex and seemingly intractable nature of ethnic, political and religious divides within this region the more one is inclined to feel it is a hornets' nest from which the Western allies would be best advised with withdraw their already badly-mauled heads.

The EU should never have bent the rules on refugees to allow into Europe millions more third world migrants from countries with totally alien religions and cultures - inevitably exacerbating the social and economic problems already threatening to tear apart the federation apart.

The White House geopolitical strategists must be rubbing its hands in glee to see their biggest rival market collapsing into chaos under the burden of seemingly endless waves of largely Muslim refugees displaced by a deliberate policy of destabalisation in order to establish USD-friendly proxy governments and pave the way for the exploitation of local resources by the giant American-based conglomerates and Wall Street vultures.

The failure to destroy the IS in its infnacy (presumably in the folorn hope that the jihadists would save the US-led coalition the trouble of toppling Assad) was a strategic error with consequences now coming home to haunt us all. We are fighting a military campaign we cannot, in the long term win, because we have yet to capture the minds of those on whose behalf we claim to be acting. The more civilians who die from stray US and Russian bombs and bullets,the more the ranks of the Islamic fundamentalists are swelled - not just in their own homelands but across the EU- with all this implies in terms of an ongoing terrorist threat on our doorsteps.

Many of the latest refugees from the Middle East war zones are far from happy in their strange new environment. Many, who risked their lives to reach Europe only to find themselves living in crowded temporary camps with few facilities, have vowed to return to their shattered and dangerous homelands - taking with them, no doubt, tales of woe which will simply add to the anti-West sentiment already rife across the region.

Cameron was right to limit the scope and scale of our help to these latest migrants. Now he should stop pretending the UK military can make a significant contribution to the demise of IS and turn to solving urgent problems on the home front. Such as the 30,000 British citizens are expected to die of cold this winter because they cannot afford enough fuel for their homes. Or rescuing the ailing NHS Or lifting millions of children out of official poverty.

As if these issues - and many others unlisted - were not enough on the nation's plate, there is the looming massive and expensive task of organising the huge public debate necessary to produce a sane result in the upcoming referendum on whether or not Britain should stay in the EU.

It is time to put the needs of our own people first - for once. From now on, we need to screen all new migrants more carefully and allow only genuine refugees across the welcome mat. The remainder - economic migrants, spongers, call them what you will - should be offered financial and other inducements to return to their own states as soon as possible. Arab countries must be induced to take any further refugees from the region and contribute to the rebuilding of homes and infrastructure in towns and cities traduced by years of warfare.

Charity, whether in Britain or in the oil-rich Gulf, should begin at home.

Edited January 27, 2016 by Krataiboy