Syria, Chemical Weapons Use and the Need for Negotiated Peace Efforts

Has the time for negotiations passed? It is certain that issues of greater social, political and economic participation by more segments of the Syrian society could have been discussed at the start of the then non-violent protests in March 2011. However, at that time, neither the government nor the different strands of the opposition moved to set an agenda on issues on which negotiations were possible or a realistic timetable for such negotiations.

Today, is the only realistic possibility a “Yemen option” in which the president leaves the country and a transition coalition is formed? There is no evidence that President Bashar al-Assad plans to leave or that he can be pushed out. In fact, the Syrian government refuses to recognize the domestic roots of the conflict and places all the blame for the escalation of violence on foreign countries — Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey. In such a stalemated situation, can President al-Assad, very late in the day, still undertake negotiations with the opposition that would insure his continued role as President while at the same time undertake reforms that would permanently modify the socio-political structures of the country in order to give greater roles to other social classes, ethnicities, and religious identities than at present. The al-Assad government will have to recognize that one-family rule with narrow sectarian support is no longer possible and that its opponents have real grievances. The oppositions need to drop its insistence that there can be no talks until the government resigns and leaves the country.