Lakhdar Brahimi, an international envoy, held talks in Damascus at the end of a Middle East tour to promote a Syrian peace conference on Monday, but tensions in Syria have dimmed the chances of a peace talk, Reuters reported.
Brahimi has been visiting capitals around the Middle East to talk about the plans for the "Geneva 2" meeting set to happen on Nov. 23 in order to stop the two and a half years of bloodshed in Syria, according to Reuters.
Brahimi's appeal for a peace talk may go unanswered as Saudi Arabia has threatened to distance themselves from the U.S. after inaction in Syria and its pursuing reconciliation with Iran, Reuters reported. The Syrian opposition said they will only attend if negotiations include the ousting of Syrian President Bashar Assad and if he is tried for war crimes, according to Reuters. The opposition added they would charge anyone attending unapproved negotiations with treason.
Assad's forces, which are slowly advancing around Damascus and parts of central Syria, are taking 100 lives a day, Reuters reported. The Arab League foreign ministers will meet on Sunday to discuss Syria and have suspended Syria's membership due to Assad's hostile handling of the uprising for his ousting.
Last week, Saudi officials said they will act separately from the U.S. and arm the Syrian opposition, dimming the chances for a peace talk to end a civil war that has killed over 100,000 people, according to Reuters.
Opposition forces are being backed by the U.S., while Russia is the main arms supplier to Syria. The two co-sponsors of the planned meeting agreed in May to arrange Geneva 2 and call for a political transition in Syria, but did not define what Syrian President Assad's role will be, according to Reuters.
President Assad and Iran have stated they will not attend talks with preconditions, Reuters reported. The Gulf Arab states backing Syrian rebels have also deflected the idea of the peace talks after Brahimi said their rival Iran, which is President Assad's main ally, should also join the meeting.
According to Samir Nashar, an executive member of the Syrian National Coalition, the tension between forces will never allow this meeting to happen. The opposition coalition says it can only attend talks if either the U.N. Security Council, or Washington and Moscow, state publicly that Assad would step down in any transition.
"All these issues are getting tangled up into the other. Like the Saudis, we are very afraid that the United States' other interests in Iran will come at the cost of the Syrian cause. If ask me, this meeting won't happen on November 23. It won't happen ever," Nashar said, according to Reuters.
Chris Phillips, a Middle East lecturer at the University of London, said that the U.S. is taking a "realistic stance" on the removal of Assad, even though its Arab Gulf allies are pressuring for more support, Reuters reported.
"The problem is what all the different sides think they're going to get out of Geneva. The opposition and the Gulf see the goal of it as removing Assad. Of course Assad, especially as he's in a position of power right now, won't accept that," Phillips said, according to Reuters. "We've already seen the West heading in this direction when they began negotiating with Assad to remove Syria's chemical weapons.
"Of course most (Western governments) want Assad removed, but the cost of removing him is more than these parties are willing to stomach," he said.
