Source : Xinhua
DAMASCUS, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Syria has made it clear that it is ready for dialogue, even with the armed parties, throwing thus the ball into the court of the opposition groups that have not so far shown any leniency in its stances and made the dialogue conditional on the departure of the current administration.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem has recently announced that Syria was ready to open dialogue with the opposition, even the armed groups, a step which was seen by observers as aiming to placate the Syrian people who are eager to reach a political solution to the country's nearly two-year crisis.
However, Salim Edris, the so-called chief of staff at the rebels Syrian Free Army, turned down al- Moallem's offer for dialogue, stipulating that President Bashar al-Assad should step down ahead of any dialogue and called for the cessation for all kinds of killing and the withdrawal of the Syrian army from cities.
Edris' conditions mirrored the ones by the political opposition abroad that also said Assad's departure should be the result of any dialogue.
Yet, the two parties of the conflict have apparently come under international pressure to embark on direct dialogue ahead of a Rome meeting of the Friends of Syria group slated for Thursday in the hope of narrowing the schism between both conflicting parties.
Syrian observers, meanwhile, believe that the Syrian crisis could not be solved but through dialogue especially as military operations and attacks have reached the capital, prompting thousands of Syrians to flee the country and many others to lock themselves inside their houses.
"I can see that the political solution is now more clear ... it 's very important factor in the Syrian crisis ... many of the countries in the world support it," Bassam Abu Abdullah, an expert in international relations, told Xinhua in an interview Wednesday.
Abdullah, who is also a university professor in international law, said that al-Moallem's call for dialogue was "very important . .. and we considered it as some kind of an opening from the Syrian government toward dialogue," adding that "We are going toward the political solution."
Abdullah's optimism has come as the world countries have grown more frustrated with the prolonged crisis and have accelerated moves and calls to draw the crisis to an end especially after the growing fear of the radical Islamists who have joined the fight against the Damascus government in the hope of establishing an Islamic state.
On Tuesday, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, following a meeting with his U.S. counterpart John Kerry in Berlin, that both Russia and the United States would spare no effort to create the suitable climates to step up the process of dialogue between the Syrian authorities and the opposition.
Lavrov stressed that it is necessary for the two sides to sit around the negotiations table, indicating that no one could solve the Syrian problem other than the Syrians themselves.
He called on the opposition to "declare itself in favor of dialogue" when it meets various Western leaders, including Kerry, at Thursday's crunch talks in Rome.
The Russian minister stressed that the Syrian government officials had "assured" Moscow that they "have a negotiating team and are ready to start dialogue as soon as possible."
He also called on the opposition to name a negotiating team.
Moreover, Lavrov accused "extremists" of hindering a political solution and said they are betting on a political solution.
Abdullah, the Syrian expert, concurred and said that "the extremists in the opposition continue their attempts to destroy this way (the political process) ... every day they are bombing and killing people."
He also accused extremists, mainly the al-Qaida-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra group of attempting to rupture the dialogue, saying "They are not looking for democracy or for making life better ... this is a terrorist organization."
He distinguished between different kinds of armed rebels and said there were some rational groups that would accept dialogue.
"We should isolate the extremists. We should isolate the terrorists. We cannot put all armed people in one basket," he said, stressing that the "Syrian government is seriously speaking abou the political solution."
Meanwhile, Abdullah confessed that the negotiations are not easy, but noted that the oppositio should start negotiations.
"Let's talk about everything and then go to the people to know what they want," he stressed, affirming that the Syrian people also would determine the country's future and its political system.
