According to a report from the Wall Street Journal,"although Syrians and world powers had few illusions this conference would halt the country's warring parties, there was some optimism over the two sides sitting down together. A week into the diplomacy, however, divisions between the two sides are persistent and deepening".
"At times the warlike rhetoric emanating from the alabaster walls of the United Nations offices here along the banks of Lake Geneva have reinforced animosities driving the conflict, disorienting even the most seasoned diplomats".
"Is it evening or afternoon?" Lakhdar Brahimi, the U.N. mediator said Wednesday night, after hours of shuttling between the two sides. Even Mr. Brahimi conceded the talks were likely to go nowhere this week. "To be blunt, I don't think we will achieve anything substantive," he said.
Officials said on Wednesday that the talks will pause on Friday and resume a week later, to gives the sides time to reflect. Meanwhile, the war raged on in Syria, with activists saying that the government has intensified its bombardment of the cities of Aleppo and Homs since the talks began.
The impasse stems from a disagreement over the talks' goal. Both sides signed onto this week's meetings by endorsing the 2012 Geneva I communiqué, which calls for the establishment of a transitional government by "mutual consent." The opposition is determined to use Geneva I as grounds to remove Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from office. That approach has been steadfastly dismissed by regime delegates, who have instead tried to focus on fighting terrorists—what they call the rebel forces.
The Assad delegates also are trumpeting plans to further enshrine his leadership by holding presidential elections in June.
With no progress in sight, both sides have resorted to using the conference as a public platform to criticize and isolate their adversaries on the diplomatic stage.
"They've been bluffing all along," said Syrian Opposition Coalition President Ahmad Jarba in an interview, referring to the regime. "When Geneva came, it was the moment of truth."
After days of posturing, Mr. Brahimi this week finally turned the discussions to the main goal of the conference—political transition. But the government immediately countered with another agenda. Damascus submitted a "political communiqué" demanding the opposition and its Western backers commit to "restore all [Syria's] occupied territories"—a reference to the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights.
The document also defended Syria's current political system as a legitimate democracy. "Syrians decide the future of their country through democratic means and the ballot box," states the document, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
The regime's defense of Syria's political system has grated on the opposition and its Jarba in an interview, referring to the regime. "When Geneva came, it was the moment of truth."
After days of posturing, Mr. Brahimi this week finally turned the discussions to the main goal of the conference—political transition. But the government immediately countered with another agenda. Damascus submitted a "political communiqué" demanding the opposition and its Western backers commit to "restore all [Syria's] occupied territories"—a reference to the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights.
The document also defended Syria's current political system as a legitimate democracy. "Syrians decide the future of their country through democratic means and the ballot box," states the document, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
The regime's defense of Syria's political system has grated on the opposition and its Western backers. Mr. Assad's father, an Air Force pilot, seized power in a 1971 coup and after his death in 2000 power passed to his son Bashar, an ophthalmologist. Both have suppressed any opposition to their rule.
Although the government amended the constitution in 2012 to allow other parties to run, the opposition didn't take part in parliamentary elections later that year, dismissing them as neither free nor fair. Despite the amendment, the Syrian parliament remained filled with Assad loyalists.
Holding new elections in the middle of a civil war, Western diplomats say, is a delay tactic aimed to shifting the diplomatic focus away from governmental transition.
The conference has also become a setting for each side to jockey for tactical advantages back on the battlefield.
Syrian officials swiftly characterized the humanitarian convoys as a trick aimed at helping besieged rebel forces rather than civilians. A counterproposal by the regime—to allow women and children to leave Homs historical quarter—was rejected in turn by opposition delegates who labeled it an attempt lure rebels into deserting their positions inside the area.
"The regime is trying to steer us away from the process," Louay Safi, a delegate for the opposition, said earlier this week.
