President Bashar al-Assad’s international backers have increased their pressure for a ceasefire and negotiated solution in Syria’s civil war, with Iran’s new president offering to mediate in the crisis.
A “Geneva II” peace conference would bring the Syrian National Coalition (SNC), other unspecified opposition groups, and the regime to the table, as originally suggested by a peace conference in the Swiss city early last year.
“I announce my government’s readiness to help facilitate dialogue between the Syrian government and the opposition,” President Hassan Rouhani wrote in an article for the Washington Post on Thursday, part of the newly elected leader’s unparalleled media campaign in advance of the upcoming UN General Assembly meeting in New York.
At the same time, a Syrian deputy prime minister, Qadri Jamil, said in an interview with The Guardian that the regime was also ready for a ceasefire, as it was now obvious neither side could win militarily.
Mr Jamil is a communist former opposition leader brought into the cabinet last year to broaden Mr Assad’s international appeal, and is regarded as close to Moscow. His intervention - which differs in key aspects from the statements made by core parts of the regime - came after a visit to Damascus by Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov.
The chemical weapons attack on East and West Ghouta in the Damascus suburbs a month ago has revived international leaders’ attention to the Syrian civil war, which was seen to be drifting towards stalemate without either side appearing to admit its chances of outright victory were lessening.
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