‘Impasse’ at Geneva on Power Transfer
The BBC reports on the impasse reached by both sides on the idea of a transitional government.
“The sides cannot agree on the future role of President Bashar al-Assad. U.N. mediator Lakhdar Brahimi said there ‘was apparently the will’ to continue talks but ‘we never expected any miracles,’” the network says.
“He said there was no decision yet on allowing an aid convoy into besieged areas of the city of Homs. ‘We are happy and encouraged that this conference has taken place: it is one little step forward but whatever gain we have made is reversible. We will continue trying to make this work and we hope that both parties will co-operate.’”
The piece features a sidebar interview with Baibars Altalawy, a resident of the Old City of Homs. In Geneva, the government conceded that women and children would soon be able to leave the neighborhood.
“We have reached a point where all the aid we have has now finished, and we are now eating anything that comes out of the ground, even grass. We pick it, then cook it with some water, using wood because we have no gas. Oil and petrol are also cut off from the besieged areas,” he says.
“The shrubs and grass that we’re eating cause illnesses. A few days ago an elderly man died within six hours from eating the grass and shrubs.”
Syria Opposition Seeks to Woo Moscow
The Wall Street Journal reports that Syria’s opposition is “trying to drive a wedge between the regime and its most powerful foreign backer by assuring Russia that if it backs a transitional government without President Bashar al-Assad, the military alliance would remain intact.”
From Geneva, Maria Abi-Habib and Stacy Meichtry say that Ahmad Jarba, leader of the opposition delegation, told the paper “that he had received assurances from Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that Moscow wasn’t wedded to its longtime ally.
“Mr. Jarba said he had accepted an invitation from Mr. Lavrov to visit Moscow in the coming weeks. He said Mr. Lavrov had given him that assurance when they discussed plans for the visit during a meeting earlier this month in Paris. ‘The Russians said: “We aren’t holding on to Assad, but we must have a political process in Geneva,”‘ Mr. Jarba said, speaking from his heavily guarded hotel room in the Swiss city.”
Talks Resume to Evacuate Civilians in Syrian City
The New York Times reports on Monday’s activity in Geneva, where “the Syrian government on Monday failed to authorize an international aid convoy to enter blockaded areas in the city of Homs, as the opposition’s Western backers declared that if the delivery was not allowed by next week, they would be likely to challenge the government in the United Nations Security Council.”
From Switzerland, Anne Barnard writes that “United Nations mediators had hoped the aid delivery would serve as a confidence-building measure at the tenuous peace talks here, and the lack of progress sharpened tensions as the opposing Syrian sides clashed over their widely differing views of the basic purpose of the negotiations.
“During the third day of face-to-face meetings, according to several people briefed on the talks, a member of the government delegation clashed with the United Nations special envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, and denounced the opposition as ‘illiterate’ and ‘Wahhabis,’ an austere Sunni sect that the Syrian government blames for extremism in the insurgency. But both sides said they would keep talking.”
Meanwhile, the Associated Press reports that the governor of Homs “says a United Nations official is in contact with opposition fighters in besieged neighborhoods of its capital to allow the evacuations of civilians.
“In a statement released Tuesday, Gov. Talal Barrazi said policewomen, paramedics and members of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent are ready to arrange the evacuation of civilians from the city of Homs and ‘we are waiting for the U.N.’s response.’”
At Neutral Site, Syrians Feel Free to Confront the Other Side
Barnard and Hwaida Saad also report on off-hours encounters in Switzerland between activists, opposition officials and the Syrian government delegation.
“Opposition activists and citizen journalists pop up everywhere: in hotel lobbies, on sidewalks, even at a breakfast table overlooking snowcapped mountains. They hound the officials with a doggedness reminiscent of Michael Moore’s hunt for Roger Smith, then the chief executive of General Motors, in his classic documentary ‘Roger & Me,’” they write.
“It is a surreal experience, too, for Syrian activists like Adnan Hadad of Aleppo, who sees it this way: ‘If we tried this in Syria, they would torture us to death.’”
Syria’s Heritage in Ruins
The Guardian has a before-and-after photo essay of some of Syria’s best-known historic buildings and UNESCO sites, many of which have been destroyed by fighting. They include Aleppo’s centuries-old souk and Umayyad mosque.
You can see the full spread here.
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Guardian: U.S. Demands Syria Allow Aid into Homs
Telegraph: Israel Jet Suspected of Attacking Syrian Missile Store
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