Russia and the US now have the power to impose peace in Syria --- Charles Glass

[bemildred]

It was scheduled to start over a week ago. Then last Wednesday. Now tomorrow . When round three of the Geneva peace talks on Syria begins, it could be Groundhog Day for Syrians. If the actors read from the script they used at the previous UN-sponsored negotiations – Geneva I in 2012 and Geneva II in 2014 – the last act will be the same: a failure.

The conference, like the current ceasefire, which began on 27 February, is taking place because the United States and Russia want it to. At last they seem to agree that the stumbling block to the last two sessions – the fate of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad – is not important enough to prolong the war.

Both sides know that this US v Russia proxy war is out of control: Europe has been hit with a tide of refugees that threatens the EU’s fragile unity; and the conflict has spread to Iraq, and threatens to erupt in Lebanon and Jordan.

Early in the war, the Syrian combatants ceded decision-making to their financiers and armourers in Russia, Iran, the US, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. If the war is to end, the powers that fuelled it must impose a solution in Geneva.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/13/russia-us-syria-peace-geneva-president-assad

[KoKo]

1. This sounds cautionary hopeful.

Seems it would depend on Turkey standing back, though. Would they?

[bemildred]

2. Hard to say.

In the end, if the EU, USA, Russia, and China all agree, they will not have much choice. They have their hands full with terrorists of various sorts already, and no real friends to rely on. Well, perhaps a few. But Erdogan is cental, and it will all depend on him while he remains in power. (Hint, hint.)

[KoKo]

3. Got it...

(Hint, hint.)