The United Nations is taking a day to see if there is enough common ground between Syrian President Bashar Assad's government and the opposition to talk directly for the first time since the rebellion began in 2011.
Peace talks charting a path out of Syria's civil war got off to a tense start Wednesday, with Assad's future at the heart of bitter exchanges on the podium as dozens of the world's most powerful diplomats looked on. High-level mediating has yielded little so far, but Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN mediator who is meeting separately Thursday with each Syrian delegation, said there are signs they might be willing to bend on humanitarian aid, cease-fires and prisoner exchanges.
Syria's government declared that its main priority was stopping terrorism not ensuring peace and the opposition hinted it was far from ready to negotiate directly with the government it wants to overthrow, casting sharp doubt Thursday on peace talks that have barely begun.
On the day that the two sides were meeting separately with a UN mediator known for untangling diplomatic knots, their comments affirmed positions hardened by nearly three years of civil war. The goal of direct talks by Friday appeared distant at best.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem, speaking after the tense opening day of a peace conference that has nearly fallen apart at every step, said his government's priority was to "to fight terrorism."
"This paves the way for the start of the political process and an internal Syrian dialogue without any foreign intervention," he said.
Al-Moallem dismissed the Western-backed Syrian National Coalition as exiled, ineffectual meddlers, insisting that any political negotiations should take place without outside interference and with those who truly represent Syrians.
Haitham al-Maleh, a veteran Syrian opposition figure and a senior member of the coalition, said Thursday there may not be any face-to-face talks between the two delegations on Friday as had been hoped but rather mediator Lakhdar Brahimi would continue to shuttle between the two sides.
At another Swiss venue, the World Economic Forum in Davos, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called Thursday for a new election in Syria, saying his nation would respect the results.
"The best solution is to organize a free and fair election in Syria" and once the ballots are cast "we should all accept" the outcome, he said.
Iran, a close ally of Assad's, was barred from participating in the Swiss-based talks to end Syria's civil war.
Syria's President Bashar al-Assad is not ready to step down yet, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday, a day after Syria's government and opposition met to launch peace talks during an international conference in Switzerland.
"Obviously he is not ready at this point in time," Kerry said in an interview with Al-Arabiya on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos.
Kerry said if a peace agreement is reached, many countries had offered to send peacekeepers to Syria.
"If there is a peace agreement, there are many countries that have already offered to step up and be peacekeepers in the new Syria," Kerry said. "There is no question but that we are all prepared to help provide protection to any of the minorities."
At least 130,000 people have been killing in the fighting that began with a peaceful uprising against Assad's rule, according to activists, who are the only ones still keeping count. The fighting in Syria has become a proxy war between regional powers Iran and Saudi Arabia, and taken on post-Cold War overtones with Russia and the United States backing opposite sides.
Signs of compromise were limited after 12 hours of meetings and speeches on Wednesday.
"We don't have any illusions, all they have done so far is ignore reality, reject everything and deceive," said Burhan Ghalyoun, a member of the Western-backed Syrian National Coalition. The opposition group, which has little influence among rebel fighters within Syria, wavered until the last minute on whether to attend the talks in Switzerland at all.
Ghalyoun said he expected little from the talks on Friday, which were intended to be the first face-to-face negotiations between Assad's representatives and members of the rebellion.
Syria's ambassador to the UN, Bashar Jaafari, said Wednesday that his government had offered a cease-fire in the northern city of Aleppo and had yet to hear back from the Americans. US officials have described that as "a capitulation initiative" in the war's most contested city, and not a truce. And rebels within Syria say the government has used past cease-fires to buy time or consolidate gains.
US and UN officials said merely getting the two sides in the same room Wednesday was something of a victory, but UN chief Ban Ki-moon's claim that the discussions were "harmonious and constructive" was at odds with the palpable tensions throughout the day.
Brahimi said Thursday's private meetings would determine the next steps and whether the two sides were ready to sit in the same room.
"As for how quickly we can reach results that would bring happiness and return hope to the Syrian people ... this I cannot tell you," he said.
AP