Staffan de Mistura, the UN Special Envoy on Syria, plans to revive the inter-Syrian talks in Geneva on April 11th. Meanwhile, yesterday the UN SC banned a Russian project of a statement which urged to provide the maximum representative character of the upcoming round of inter-Syrian talks. The Permanent Spokesman of Russia in the UN, Vitaly Churkin, stated that Moscow was concerned about the fact that Syrian Kurds were not invited to the Geneva talks.
A member of the Russian Presidential Council on Civil Society and Human Rights Development, Maxim Shevchenko, told Vestnik Kavkaza that “a peace process started in Syria due to Russia’s position. But the fight against terrorism, especially terrorism that has gained territorial binding and managed to create a huge army on this territory, seized oil fields and trading oil to the left and right, in all directions, getting huge profits, achieved significant political and military success, is a very long and complex fight.”
According to Shevchenko, the main topic of Syrian policy is the formation of stable democratic institutions: “The main front is between President Assad, his allies, Hezbollah and Iran, and the Islamic opposition and all the rest. In this direction the efforts of Russia are fundamental. ISIS or Jabhat al-Nusra are peripheral targets right now. The main aim is to provide a peace process and create a stable core for a future united and indivisible Syria, which will be federal or confederal, let the Syrians themselves decide with the support and with the help of the country's external partners, including, of course, the Russian Federation. And then we can start to fight ISIS.”
The expert recalls that ISIS is not a Syrian, but an Iraqi phenomenon: “ISIS was mainly created by Iraqis, led by Iraqis. There are almost no Syrians in the ISIS leadership, so ISIS is a peripheral topic for the inter-Syrian policy, in contrast to Jabhat al-Nusra, which is a much more serious inter-Syrian problem. Non-recognition of Jabhat al-Nusra as part of the negotiating process leaves about 40-50 thousand motivated, armed to the teeth soldiers out of the negotiating process. So if the war against ISIS – somewhere there, on the distant border with Iraq, there is a war against Jabhat al-Nusra – is a war in Aleppo, Homs and, in general, in the heart of Syria. There is still a long diplomatic and political way to go. But, without a doubt, Russia has laid the foundation stone for an inter-Syrian political settlement.”
Shevchenko states that this is not the first civil war in Syria's history: in terms of scale, it is, of course, bigger than all the rest. due to the fact that for the first time Syria has become the object of direct intervention by foreign states, which pursued the aim of dividing it and destroying its territorial integrity – Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Israel and the Gulf countries. But the Syrians already have experience of ending civil wars in 1940-50. Syria is a very ancient civilization of the highest political and social culture. I am sure that if the Syrians will have an opportunity they will find a common language, even irreconcilable enemies of today will be able to sit, drink coffee and build those or other formats [of peaceful living]. Of course, the Syria of before will not return, there will be no Ba'athist Syria, there is no doubt about that. But I also have no doubt about the fact that Assad will remain one of the parties of the Syrian internal political field.”
