The goals of the Syria peace talks in Montreux are fairly straight forward: negotiate an end to armed conflict which has cost well over 120,000 lives and has displaced a huge percentage of the population. As I argued in my overview of the conference, there is absolutely no chance for success. So far, everything that […]
The Geneva II conference on Syria starts this week. The Syrian National Coalition, the internationally recognized opposition group, has decided that it will attend. The SNC also indicated last week that hopes for success were slim. But those hopes have now fallen to zero. This is not my wish, nor my opinion, but the only […]
The Assad regime in Syria is broke. That was the consensus of every expert, and resident, more than one year ago. American officials noted that the regime was struggling to find a way to print currency, and that by July of last year the regime had spent more than half of its sovereign wealth fund. […]
The prospects of a Geneva II conference to resolve the Syrian crisis occurring in November are fading, as several key unresolved issues remain. The first is that the Syrian opposition that took to the streets to protest, and later to fight, against Bashar al Assad remains unwilling to negotiate until Assad’s resignation is agreed to […]
