MOSCOW - The Syrian government has agreed to participate in an international peace conference coordinated by Russia and the United States, a spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said Friday.
“We note with satisfaction that Damascus has confirmed its readiness in principle to participate in an international conference in the interest of the Syrians themselves finding a political path to a settlement of the conflict that has been devastating for the country and the region,” the spokesman, Alexander Lukashevich, said in a statement.
The Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had agreed during a meeting in Moscow earlier this month to pull together the peace conference, with Russia responsible for bringing the government of Syria President Bashar Assad to the table and the Americans focused on securing the participation of the Syrian opposition. The meeting is expected next month.
But while Lukashevich said the Syrian government had committed to participating in the talks, he said “complicating factors” were undermining efforts to broker an end to the violence.
He said some steps by the West at the United Nations in New York and in Geneva were counterproductive.
“It’s regrettable that despite our persistent appeals to some partners, after the Russian-American initiative has already been announced, a decision on Syria was imposed on the U.N. General Assembly, which was lopsided in its character and contradicting to the consensus being formed in the world in favor of political settlement in this country,” he said.
Last week, the 193-member General Assembly passed a nonbinding resolution calling for a political transition to end the civil war in Syria, putting the burden on Assad’s government to stop the killing.
The U.N.’s top human-rights official, Navi Pillay, has repeatedly called for urgent action to halt the violence in Syria, underscoring the level of brutality of the conflict, calling for war crimes investigations for both sides and monitoring the rising death toll and refugee crisis. More than 70,000 people are believed to have died in the conflict, and hundreds of thousands of refugees have crowded into bordering nations.
But Lukashevich called the proposed peace conference “a real chance to stop the bloodshed and suffering of the Syrians and ensure a peaceful, democratic future for Syria.”
“This opportunity should not be missed,” he said.
A spokesman for Syria’s main political opposition group reacted to the announcement that the government would attend by saying that there were no signs that it was really willing to produce “a peaceful political solution.”
The spokesman, Khaled Saleh, speaking on the sidelines of a three-day meeting of the opposition in Istanbul, said, “When any meaningful negotiation must start with good-will gestures, the regime continues using chemical weapons and heavily engages Iranian-backed Hezbollah fighters on the ground.”
The Syrian opposition was meeting to elect a new leader and formulate their positions before the expected international conference in Geneva next month. Kerry will fly to Paris on Monday to meet with Lavrov to discuss the Geneva meeting, a U.S. official said.
The Syrian opposition has been plagued by divisions and infighting. While the rebels in the field and the hard-liners within the main opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, insist they will accept nothing less than Assad stepping down, others may be more willing to compromise on a phased transition.
“We are not willing to enter a tunnel with no guarantees of a light at the end of that tunnel,” said Muhieddine Lathkani, a London-based Syrian opposition figure, in a telephone interview. “There’s still a lot of fogginess surrounding the talks and we are waiting for some answers.”
Much about the conference remains up in the air, including the date, the agenda, the timetable and the participants. Officials have said it should be held in June.
The U.S. is working to persuade Syrian rebels to attend, and the Russians have been pressing Assad’s regime to take part as well.
U.S. officials said Kerry will extend a seven-day trip through the Middle East and Africa by one day to meet with Lavrov on Monday to discuss their joint initiative.
The opposition is deeply suspicious about Assad’s intention to hold serious peace talks, and the fact that the announcement was made by the Russians - Assad’s government has not issued a definitive statement - added to the skepticism.
“We would like to hear from the spokesman of the Syrian government. Why is Russia speaking on behalf of Syria?” opposition figure Louay Safi said.
In the Syrian capital of Damascus, legislator Sharif Shehadeh confirmed the government intends to attend.
“The expectations and the opinion within the Syrian leadership is that it will most definitely attend the conference,” Shehadeh said.
He said there should be no preconditions by the opposition or the regime because “if we start off with preconditions, we will end up in failure, and this is something Russia is making clear to the opposition.”
Shehadeh added: “The success of the conference lies with the opposition, not the government.”
Kerry made clear at a “Friends of Syria” conference in Jordan this week that more aid to the rebels would be coming if the regime refuses to cooperate with an international effort to form a transitional government. The U.S. is still reluctant to join those providing the rebels with lethal military aid, but some in the opposition are hoping that will change.
Kerry acknowledged the difficulties of launching peace talks. “Nobody has any illusions about how difficult, complicated, what a steep climb that is,” he said Thursday during a visit to Israel.
Meanwhile, Syria said it targeted an Israeli vehicle that crossed a cease-fire line into its territory earlier this week because it was heading toward a village with a large rebel presence.
In a letter to the U.N. Security Council circulated Friday, Syria’s U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari said his country exercised its right to self-defense and would respond immediately to any other violation of its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Syria accused Israel of violating the U.N. Charter and the separation of forces agreement that followed the 1973 Arab-Israeli war when it sent the vehicle into Syrian territory and launched two missiles Tuesday. He said Syria expects the Security Council “to put an end to Israel’s violations.”
Israel said an Israeli jeep was fired upon during an overnight patrol on its side of the cease-fire line in the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau which Israel captured from Syria in 1967 and later annexed. Syria has demanded its return.
Syria claimed it destroyed the vehicle, but Israel said the jeep suffered only minor damage and no one was hurt. Israel said it returned fire at the source and scored a “direct hit.”
Since the Syrian civil war broke out in March 2011, there has been growing concern of spillover across the tense border with Israel.
Austria’s foreign minister said Friday that the European Union’s arms embargo to Syria should be extended while a political solution is sought in its civil war and to maintain the safety of U.N. peacekeepers in the Golan Heights area that separates Syria and Israel.
Austria’s 377 soldiers make up the largest contingent of the approximately 900 U.N. peacekeepers posted to the Golan Heights. Michael Spindelegger, Austria’s foreign minister, said they could be targeted by Syrian government forces, if EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday decide to allow members to ship arms to the Syrian opposition.
France and Britain are the main EU proponents of arming the rebels. About half a dozen smaller countries, including Austria, oppose that. The rest of the 27-nation bloc falls somewhere in between.
In Syria, intense fighting continued Friday, particularly in the western Syrian town of Qusair, near the border with Lebanon.
Government forces have been trying since Sunday to recapture the town, which lies at the heart of a government offensive to secure a strategic strip running from the capital of Damascus to the Mediterranean coast and Syria’s seaports.
The Iranian-backed Lebanese Shiite militant Hezbollah group, a staunch ally of Assad, has been assisting his troops in the fighting.
That has raised tension in Lebanon and contributing to week-long fighting in the northern Lebanese port of Tripoli.
Lebanese supporters and opponents of Assad in the predominantly Sunni city have clashed in some of the worst fighting there in years. Security officials said the death toll since Sunday reached 25, including three soldiers.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media, said 200 people were wounded.
The city was quiet Friday apart from sporadic shooting, but small anti-Hezbollah protests erupted. The flags of Hezbollah, Russia and Iran were set on fire.
Information for this article was contributed by David M. Herszenhorn of The New York Times; by Zeina Karam, Albert Aji, Nataliya Vasilyeva, Umut Colak, Bassem Mroue, Edith M. Lederer, Karin Laub and staff members of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 05/25/2013