No sign of breaking the deadlock

At a press conference held after he submitted his report to the UN Security Council on Syria, UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said that a bid by Syrian President Bashar Assad to run for another term in office would be a hindrance to any peace talks.

Brahimi made clear that while there is no official announcement yet that Assad will declare his candidacy, there are indications that he will, and an imminent announcement to that effect would kill all chances for resuming peace talks between Damascus and the Syrian opposition.

The UN envoy also blamed the Syrian government for purposefully using all sorts of delaying tactics to prevent the resumption of peace negotiations.

The series of military successes registered by the Syrian armed forces must have quite a lot to do with the government’s hardline stance on efforts to reach a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Syria.

It is not the first time that Brahimi views a potential Assad re-election as an obstacle to a solution to the Syrian crisis. The UN envoy said, before Geneva II, that Assad would have no political future in any peace deal.

Given the added tensions between Moscow and Western capitals over the fate of Crimea, the failure of US Secretary of State John Kerry’s and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s efforts to end their differences on the Ukrainian conflict, and the international geopolitical climate, the stalemate in the civil war in Syria stands little chance to be solved.

This can only mean more killing and destruction in Syria, and more Syrians fleeing their country for the safety offered by neighbouring Arab countries.

Meanwhile, the UN Security Council remains helpless in performing its duty towards the Syrian people with, as a result, both Syrians and the populations in neighbouring countries continuing to suffer.