According to organizers, the “Conference aims to promote and
encourage a real dialogue between the Syrian democratic opposition structures
in an open dialogue about the violence consequences, the sectarian risks and
the future of the democratic project. It will encourage cooperation,
coordination and synergies between political parties, civil society and social
movement inside Syria, and advance work towards a realistic transitional
program, for a civil and democratic State in Syria.”
In addition to political pressure to keep opposition leaders
out of the Geneva meeting, France hastily organized a meeting for the so-called
Friends of Syria in Paris during the same period. This time however, the
Friends of Syria meeting will take place amid disagreements among the supporters
of the Syrian Coalition. France, who just intervened militarily in Mali, has
accused Qatar of supporting the Salafi militants there.
Moreover, France is now re-assessing its old position
concerning Syria. On Thursday, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius declared that
things are not going as expected. "Things are not moving. The solution
that we had hoped for, and by that I mean the fall of Bashar and the arrival of
the (opposition) coalition to power, has not happened," he said in his
annual New Year's address to the press. In March 2011, Fabius himself told RFI
radio in December that "the end is nearing" for Assad. On Thursday,
he said that "there are no recent positive signs… France continues, like
others, to try [to] find a solution so that Bashar is replaced and that a
united Syria that respects all communities is achieved. However, we are far
from it."
With new leadership in the Defense and State departments in
the United States, the only consistent factors in the Syrian crisis remain to
be Russia, China, and Iran. Recently, Russia declared that without a political
solution, Syria’s civil war is likely to continue for another two years at least. Iran,
where a new president will be elected this year, Ali Akbar Velayati, the adviser to the supreme
leader and a potential presidential candidate, declared that an outside attack
on Syria will be considered an attack on Iran. All these developments would
mean that the bloodshed and suffering will continue for at least months if not
years.
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