BEIRUT - Reflecting confusion in efforts to convene an international conference to end Syria’s civil war, the Arab League chief announced on Sunday that talks will take place next month in Geneva, only to have the United Nations envoy deny a date has been set.
The diplomatic two-step between Arab League Chief Nabil Elaraby and the U.N. envoy for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, at a joint news conference added to the uncertainty surrounding the proposed peace talks. A decision over whether the long-delayed negotiations will happen at all could come at a meeting of the Syrian opposition early next month that will focus on whether to sit down with President Bashar Assad’s regime.
The United States and Russia, which support opposing sides in the conflict that has killed more than 100,000 people, have been trying for months to unite the Damascus government and Syria’s divided opposition for a peace conference. But with the war dead-locked, neither the regime nor the rebels showed any interest in compromise, forcing the meeting to be repeatedly postponed.
The main Western-backed opposition umbrella group, the Syrian National Coalition, is scheduled to meet Nov. 1-2 in Istanbul to decide whether to take part in the proposed Geneva conference. One of the most prominent factions within the coalition, the Syrian National Council, has said it has no faith in talks with Assad’s regime and won’t attend any Geneva negotiations.
The coalition’s ability to speak for the broader rebellion has long been in dispute, and fighters inside Syria - many of whom reject negotiations with the regime - have accused the opposition leaders in exile of being out of touch with reality on the ground. Last month, nearly a dozen prominent rebel groups publicly broke with the opposition umbrella group.More rebel brigades have since followed suit.
The government, meanwhile, has kept its options via Geneva open. Some officials have said all opposition groups should be represented in the talks, while others have refused to deal with the coalition. Assad, however, has stuck to one point throughout: a refusal to talk with “terrorists,” the term the government uses for those trying to topple the president by force.
With questions over who will attend lingering, Elaraby announced after meeting with Brahimi at Arab League headquarters in Cairo that the Geneva conference would be held Nov. 23. Elaraby acknowledged that “many difficulties” remain, but said “it’s time that the killings and the bloodshed stopped.”
But standing next to him, Brahimi then denied the timing of the proposed peace talks had been finalized. He said he must first visit Qatar and Turkey - two key supporters of the rebellion - and then meet with U.S. and Russian officials in Geneva before a formal date will be announced.
Brahimi said the negotiations “will not be held without a credible opposition, representing an important part of opposition within [the] Syrian people.”
For the opposition, Elaraby’s talk of a Geneva conference in November was premature.
“As Brahimi said, it’s not certain, it’s not set,” said coalition member Michel Kilo. “The coalition has not decided yet togo to Geneva.”
In the past, the coalition has said that it will only negotiate if it is agreed from the start that Assad will leave power before the transition period can begin. The government has rejected demands that Assad leave, saying the president will stay at least until the end of his term in mid-2014, and will then decide whether to seek re-election.
While the international community has tried to convene peace talks, the fighting on the ground has shown no sign of abating.
On Sunday, rebels drove a truck laden with more than a ton of explosives into a government checkpoint on the outskirts of the central city of Hama, the state news agency SANA said. A nearby truck carrying gasoline cylinders was caught up in the explosion, prompting a series of other blasts. Footage aired on Syrian television showed rubble, fires and bodies on the ground.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the al-Qaida-linked Jabhat al-Nusra carried out the attack. SANA put the death toll at 37, while the Observatory placed it at 43.
Jabhat al-Nusra is shunned by the coalition but accepted by many rebels as a valuable ally against Assad’s forces.
A local activist, Zakariya Attiya, said via Skype that the military had turned the office into a base and run a checkpoint on the road that searched all cars entering and leaving the city.
“That place was well known by all as the base from which they launched their operations in the area,” Attiya said. “They detain and torture people there.”
Attiya said that Jabhat al-Nusra had carried out the attack because the rebels, who have taken over towns in the surrounding countryside, lack the military might to challenge the government’s grip on the city. While other rebels in the area do not use suicide bombers, they do not complain if Jabhat al-Nusra does, as long as it targets the government.
It was the second deadly assault on a government post in two days. On Saturday, rebels led by fighters from Jabhat al-Nusra set off a car bomb while assaulting a checkpoint near Damascus, killing 16 soldiers.
Information for this article was contributed by Ryan Lucas, Diaa Hadid, Albert Aji and Charlie Gans of The Associated Press; and by Ben Hubbard of The New York Times.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 10/21/2013