At the end of the first part of a conference on Syria on Wednesday 25 April, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini announced that the 85 delegations attending (without a Syrian representative) had agreed on the need for a political process to put an end to the war in Syria. She also said that a political "breakthrough" during the meeting would have been "unrealistic".
"The differences have not disappeared, but I think we can say that there is a common basis with the fact that there is no military solution to the war in Syria and that there is a need to relaunch the political process. At a time like this, this common commitment is important", Mogherini told press. "To say there is no military solution means really engaging in diplomatic discussions", she added.
Like Mogherini, UN Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, also attacked the three guarantors of the Astana process: Russia, Turkey and Iran. Mogherini thus called on Moscow and Tehran to exert pressure on the regime for it to come and negotiate in Geneva. "We particularly need Russia and Iran to exert pressure on Damascus to agree to sit at the table under the auspices of the UN. The opposition, with which we have worked over recent years, is more united today and ready to sit down for negotiations", she said when arriving at the conference.
De Mistura warned against a Pyrrhic victory for the regime. "There is a risk of permanent guerrilla war, of non-stabilisation, of a lack of real reconstruction and of so-called Islamic State taking advantage of this to come back. It is in everyone's interest, including the Syrian regime's (...) to come to the negotiation table", he warned. "War can lead to a political victory, but can it lead to winning peace?", Mogherini asked, who again warned that the EU would not help in the reconstruction of the country without the start of a "clear, serious and credible" political transition.
De Mistura and Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Recep Akdağ highlighted the need for elections. "The international community must exert pressure on the regime for the Syrian people to be able to have fair elections without any pressure from the regime. This will be the real solution", Akdağ told EUROPE (EUROPE will return to this).
For de Mistura, the processes launched by the guarantors are failing. "The duty of Astana that they imposed is an appeasement. They have made a great deal of progress, but recently we have seen an escalation, and not a de-escalation", he added, saying that although they had committed to it, there is no progress on the issue of prisoners and people who have disappeared. It is the same thing for Sotchi, where they committed to establishing a committee to focus on the development of a new Syrian Constitution. "All this does not help the Geneva process", de Mistura stated.
"Personally, I do not see any coherence between words and actions. I hope I will see this coherence in the coming weeks", Mogherini said, adding that it would be in the interest of Moscow and Tehran to contribute positively to a political solution, when the two countries support the regime militarily. Mogherini also criticised Turkey for its operation in Afrin, saying that "no escalation helped", except for the actions targeting terrorist organisations. In an exclusive interview with EUROPE, Akdağ denied this. "The Afrin operation is not a sort of escalation operation, but simply a fight against other terrorist groups (...) Lots of EU countries (...) think that if a terrorist group does not affect them it should be left alone, but this is not right", he said, adding that since Afrin, his country had been attacked by the PYD and YPG.
Mogherini also reiterated the importance of being held accountable. On the sidelines of the conference, seven EU member states – Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK – launched a 'Brussels Oath', according to the words of French Secretary of State Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, committing not to allow impunity for crimes in Syria. According to Lemoyne, this will be via political and financial support to NGOs that collect evidence and accounts, and pressure for an investigation mechanism at the UN and for the International Criminal Court to be used. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)