Geneva Document Key To End Syria Stalemate
Geoffrey Aronson writes that the Geneva Agreement on Syria entails “walking back” both Washington's pre-emptive demand for Bashar al-Assad’s departure and Moscow’s support for the regime.
As the crushing stalemate between government and opposition forces in Syria continues, the prominence of the agreement reached between Russian, American and regional officials in Geneva in June 2012 grows in importance.
The Geneva Agreement, as it is known, was produced with the participation of foreign ministers from the permanent members of the UN Security Council and several other countries, who “agreed on principles and guidelines for a political transition that meets the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people.” It proposed a transitional government for Syria comprised of officials from the regime and the opposition.
Less than a week ago week ago, US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reaffirmed the centrality of the Geneva understandings to a diplomatic agreement on Syria.
"We are both going to go back, we are going to explore those possibilities, and we are going to talk again about [whether] any of those other avenues could conceivably be pursued," explained Kerry after seeing Lavrov in Brussels.
