Major powers began a new round of Syria talks yesterday focusing on calls for a ceasefire and access for aid, but the mood was dour with Moscow showing no sign of calling off its bombing in support of a massive new government advance.
With the Syrian opposition saying it cannot accept a truce because it does not trust the Russians, diplomats saw little chance of progress.
The first peace talks in two years collapsed last week before they began in the face of the government offensive, one of the biggest and most consequential of the five-year war.
Yesterday’s meeting in the German city of Munich was meant to allow powers to co-ordinate support for ongoing negotiations, but instead has turned into a desperate bid to resurrect them.
A Western diplomat said that US Secretary of State John Kerry wanted an immediate ceasefire in Syria - “All or nothing”. Moscow, however, had proposed a truce that would begin only from the start of next month, giving its Damascus allies 18 more days to recapture Aleppo, once Syria’s largest city.
Western powers were hopeful wording could be agreed that at the very least would allow more access for aid to besieged areas.
“Here we need something of a breakthrough,” said German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. “Today, we will try what has not been achieved so far especially, to get better supplies to people locked in Syria and link this to first steps in a significant reduction of violence.”
But a senior Western diplomat summed up the pessimistic outlook: “This meeting risks being endless and I fear the results will be extremely small.”
Russia’s intervention on the battlefield on behalf of President Bashar al-Assad since last October has swung the momentum. The latest advance over the past two weeks has seen government forces and allies rout rebels and come close to encircling Aleppo, a divided city half held by rebels for years.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who met Kerry ahead of the talks, said Moscow had submitted proposals for a ceasefire and was awaiting a response from other powers. But Western officials do not expect Moscow to accept the immediate halt to bombing Washington seeks.
Kerry said he expected a “serious conversation”.
“Obviously, at some point in time, we want to make progress on the issues of humanitarian access and ceasefire,” Kerry said.
Russia is widely viewed as unlikely to halt support for the government advance until Damascus achieves its two main objectives: recapturing Aleppo and sealing the Turkish border, for years the lifeline for rebel-held areas.
That would amount to the most decisive victory of the war so far, and probably put an end to rebel hopes of removing Assad by force, their goal throughout five years of fighting that has killed 250,000 people and driven 11mn from their homes.
“The goal is to totally liberate Aleppo and then to seal the northern border with Turkey,” said Ivan Konovalov, director of the Center for Strategic Trend Studies in Moscow, explaining the Russian government thinking. “The offensive should not be stopped - that would be tantamount to defeat.”
Saudi Arabia has floated the idea of sending ground troops to help the US effort against Islamic State. This was criticised by Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who said it could make the war permanent.
“All sides must be compelled to sit at the negotiating table instead of unleashing a new world war,” he told Germany’s Handelsblatt newspaper.
The Russian-backed government assault has sent tens of thousands of people fleeing towards the Turkish border. The UN has said it fears for 300,000 people still trapped in Aleppo.
In a speech, President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey’s patience may run out and Ankara may have to take action, but gave no details of what he meant.

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