Syria’s government and Opposition, meeting for the first time, vented their mutual hostility yesterday at a UN peace conference where world powers also offered sharply differing views on forcing out President Bashar al-Assad.
Opposition leader Ahmed Jarba accused Assad of Nazi-style war crimes and demanded the Syrian government delegation at the one-day meeting in Switzerland sign up to an international plan for handing over power.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem insisted Assad would not bow to outside demands, graphically describing what he called atrocities of the “terrorists” – rebels supported by the Arab and Western states which were present in the room.
Government insists Assad is staying put
“Assad isn’t going,” Syria’s Information Minister said.
The United States and Russia, co-sponsors of the conference which UN officials hope will lead to negotiations in Geneva from tomorrow, also revealed their differences over Assad during a day of formal presentations in Montreux on Lake Geneva.
The talks reflect global concern that a civil war which has killed over 130,000 and made millions homeless is spilling beyond Syria and encouraging sectarian militancy abroad.
There was little sign that any party was ready to make concessions at the meeting, which ended in the late afternoon.
Western officials were taken aback by the combative tone of Moualem, who also defied UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s plea to shorten his speech in testy exchanges.
Moualem called on foreign powers to stop “supporting terrorism” and to lift sanctions against Damascus.
He insisted Assad’s future was not in question, saying: “Nobody in this world has a right to withdraw legitimacy from a president or government... other than the Syrians themselves.”
US Secretary of State John Kerry echoed the rebel view that there is “no way” Assad can stay under the terms of a 2012 international accord urging an interim coalition. However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said all sides had a role and condemned “one-sided interpretations” of the 2012 pact.