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Syrian and American diplomats Sunday blamed each other for a lack of progress at peace talks in Geneva aimed at opening a dialogue between Damascus and opposition representatives from the Syrian National Coalition, who are fighting a civil war that activists say has claimed 140,000 lives.
The peace talks broke off Saturday, and it’s not clear when, or if, they’ll resume.
Although negotiators reached a deal that allowed the United Nations and Syrian Red Crescent to rescue hundreds of Syrian civilians from the besieged city of Homs, larger issues, such as establishing corridors for humanitarian aid, have hit roadblocks. And even during the talks themselves, violence raged in the war-ravaged country, killing thousands.
Syria's foreign minister Sunday accused the United States of trying to create a "negative climate" for dialogue at the second round of peace talks in Geneva, while his American counterpart accused Syrian negotiators of blocking progress.
The comments by Walid al-Moallem come a day after the meetings between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government and the opposition seeking his ouster ended without finding a way of breaking the impasse in the nearly three-year-old conflict.
Al-Moallem spoke to the Syrian state news service about the talks as the Syrian delegation was returning from Switzerland to Damascus on Sunday. He said the U.S. tried to "create a very negative climate for dialogue in Geneva."
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry Sunday blamed "obstruction" by Syrian government for the breakdown in the Geneva talks and accused Assad of being a "magnet for terrorists."
"None of us are surprised that the talks have been hard, and that we are at a difficult moment, but we should all agree that the Assad regime's obstruction has made progress even tougher," Kerry said, urging the regime's supporters to press for the creation of a transitional government.
"As for Assad, who says he wants to talk about terrorism, Assad himself is a magnet for terrorists. He's the principal magnet of the region for attracting foreign fighters to Syria," Kerry said. "Moreover, Assad himself is engaging in state-sanctioned terror against his own people. When you indiscriminately drop bombs on women and children, when you starve people and torture people by the thousands, those are acts of terror."
On Saturday, international mediator Lakhdar Brahimi apologized to the Syrian people for the lack of progress. “I am very, very sorry and I apologize to the Syrian people that their hopes, which were very, very high here, that something will happen here,” he told journalists after the talks ended.
Kerry's statement late Sunday repeated the U.S. commitment to finding a political solution to the conflict, and he praised the opposition's "mature seriousness of purpose and willingness to discuss all aspects of the conflict."
Kerry’s British counterpart, Foreign Secretary William Hague, echoed his sentiments blaming Assad for the talks’ ineffectiveness.
The failure to agree on "an agenda for future rounds of talks ... is a serious setback in the search for peace in Syria, and the responsibility for it lies squarely with the Assad regime," Hague said in a statement.
Both Hague and Kerry were behind an international diplomatic effort last summer to rally support for punitive air strikes against Assad, saying they had evidence showing government forces had used chemical weapons on civilians.
But the push ended in Syria agreeing to dismantle its stockpile in a Russia-brokered plan — although Syria has not met deadlines it committed to for destroying the weapons.
No date was set for a third round of talks and it was unclear whether any would be held, but Kerry said the United States remained committed to the Geneva process and all diplomatic efforts to find a political solution.
Meanwhile, the opposition Supreme Military Council (SNC) on Sunday sacked Salim Idriss, who headed the Western-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) since Dec. 2012, citing the need for a "restructuring."
The FSA in recent months has been overshadowed by a larger, hardline contingent of rebel forces called the Islamic Front, and both have engaged in infighting with Al-Qaeda-linked extremist fighters who are streaming into Syria.
In December, the SNC defense minister, Asaad Mustafa, told the Daily Telegraph that Idriss, a defected general from the Syrian army, had failed in his post and said, “I don’t think everything can continue in the same way.”
Brigadier Abdullah al-Bashir was appointed in his place, the Council said in a video posted online.
The same day, the leader of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, pledged to continue fighting alongside Assad's troops until Sunni Muslim forces fighting with the rebels are defeated.
"We will remain where we should be, our policy hasn't changed," Nasrallah said in a televised speech to commemorate the death of three of the group's leaders, including top military commander Imad Mughniyeh who was killed in a Damascus car bombing in 2008.
Hezbollah fighters have been key to the Syrian army's success on the battlefield since June, when they helped Assad's forces dislodge rebels from the opposition stronghold of Qusair near the border with Lebanon.
"We will be victorious. It's only a matter of time," Nasrallah said.
More than 5,792 people were killed in Syria since the Geneva talks began on Jan. 22, according to activists.
Al Jazeera and wire services
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