MESOP ANALYSIS BY RELEVANT VOICES & SOURCES – UN Syria Envoy Offers Roadmap for Peace

UN envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura has proposed a new roadmap (Reuters) in hopes of a breakthrough in negotiations for peace in Syria. On Wednesday, the UN invited Syria’s warring parties to participate in four UN-led working groups aimed at ending the four-year civil war:

ANALYSIS :  GUARDIAN : “The job of the UN special envoy for Syria is a uniquely onerous one. As the nominal representative of the ‘international community’, in the form of the UN, the envoy’s fundamental task is to bring warring parties to the negotiating table to begin some sort of conversation. But in the case of Syria, where at least half a dozen nations are involved, that requires the participation of not only the major regional actors—the Saudis, Turkish, Jordanians, Qataris and Iranians—but also various world powers, including Russia, China and the United States,” writes Janine di Giovanni in the Guardian.

WASHINGTON POST : “In order for negotiations to succeed, the United States should increase pressure on Russia and Iran to use their leverage with the regime to end the use of barrel bombs and even out the balance of power in negotiations. Failing this, the risk of ‘catastrophic success’ for the opposition will only increase, while the support for negotiations declines further and military victory is viewed as the best bet to remove the Assad regime,” write Steven Heydemann and Annika Folkeson in the Washington Post.

SLATE : “Assad’s departure won’t end the violence in Syria, or Iraq for that matter. ISIS without Assad will still be a factor for years to come if not longer and the complex constellation of rebel groups fighting Assad, including some linked to al-Qaida, aren’t just going to lay down their arms once he’s gone. But given the local carnage and global strife his rule has created, his departure from the scene would be a very welcome development, and there’s more hope for it right now than there’s been in years,” writes Joshua Keating in Slate.