The only purpose of the Syria peace talks was to distract everyone from all the fighting in Syria. This is a Shiite vs Sunni holy war, with the addition of ISIS to make it a triangle. Most of the parties doing the fighting are not represented at the peace table. And the only reason the Russians were pushing the scam is to help Assad gain an advantage. Which he did.
So now we are going right back to where we started. And the UN is doing its useless grandstanding.
The United Nations envoy mediating a resolution to the crisis in Syria warned that the latest round of talks was overshadowed by a substantial deterioration of the cessation of hostilities, and called on the leaders of the Russian Federation and United States to help salvage the “barely alive” pact.
“What we need to do and to hear is that the cessation of hostilities is salvaged and […] is saved from a total collapse,” Staffan de Mistura, UN Special Envoy for Syria, told reporters following a briefing to the Security Council yesterday.
Except that all the bombing and fighting casts some slight doubt on the existence of any "cessation of hostilities".
“This round of talks has instead been overshadowed, let’s be frank, by a substantial and indeed worrisome deterioration of the cessation of hostilities,” he said. “We cannot ignore that and we have not ignored it.”
Cessation of hostilities means that the hostilities have ceased. If you have ongoing hostilities, then that's not a deterioration of a cessation of hostilities. It means that the cessation of hostilities doesn't exist.
“Let’s put it in a few words: In the last 48 hours, we have had an average of one Syrian killed every 25 minutes. One Syrian wounded every 13 minutes,” he said.
But other than that the hostilities have ceased.
“You remember when the word transition, at least in certain area, was taboo? Not anymore. Everyone acknowledges that that is the agenda,” the envoy stressed.
The envoy also said that there is a clear understanding that a credible political transition should be overseen by a new credible and inclusive transitional governance that will be replacing the present governance arrangements. The other common point is that the transitional governance should include members of the present Government, opposition, independents and others, he said.
Great plan. Also we should invite the unicorns. And plant a money tree.
Russia has no reason to agree to a transition since it's winning. The UN helped make that happen with its truce. The Sunni Jihadists, not to mention ISIS, have already shown in Libya what that kind of transition would look like.
The UN. It's worse than useless.