Kerry blames Syrian government for peace deadlock

US secretary of state John Kerry has issued a statement blaming the Syrian government for the deadlock in peace talks but asserted that the United States remained "committed to the Geneva process."

Mr Kerry’s statement followed two rounds of generally fruitless discussions during which the Syrian government continued its attacks on rebel-held areas with crude weapons known as barrel bombs, and came as more than 200,000 Syrians remained cut off from humanitarian assistance.

Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN special envoy to the negotiations, underscored the sense of frustration when he apologised to the Syrian people over the weekend and wondered aloud if there was even any point in continuing the talks.

The main aim of the statement appeared to be to pressure president Bashar al- Assad and to keep alive the hope that a political settlement might eventually be reached.

He is scheduled to fly today to the United Arab Emirates, which is among the Persian Gulf countries that have supported the Syrian opposition. His statement may have been intended in part to set the tone for those deliberations.

Mr Kerry repeated previous US complaints that it was the Assad government that had blocked progress. “While it stalled in Geneva, the regime intensified its barbaric assault on its civilian population with barrel bombs and starvation,” he said. “It has even gone as far as to add some of the opposition delegates at Geneva to a terrorist list and seize their assets. This is reprehensible.”

In contrast, Mr Kerry’s statement said, the opposition “put forward a viable and well-reasoned road map for the creation of a transitional governing body and a viable path by which to move the negotiations forward.”

In an apparent allusion to Russia’s support for Damascus, Mr Kerry called on Assad’s backers to use their influence to reach a settlement. “In the end, they will bear responsibility if the regime continues with its intransigence in the talks and its brutal tactics on the ground,” the statement said.

In an indication of the difficulties the opposition is confronting on the battlefield, the Western-aligned Free Syrian Army announced yesterday that it had dismissed Salim Idriss as its military chief and appointed Abdel al-Ilah al-Bachir in his place, Agence France-Presse reported.

The group cited “the difficulties faced by the Syrian revolution” as the reason for the change.

Iran and Russia have been shipping weapons - and, in Tehran's case, sending Quds Force military personnel - to Syria to help the Assad government, while the covert US programme to train and equip Syrian rebels has been limited.

New York Times