Brahimi hails US-Russia accord on Syria

Brahimi hails US-Russia accord on Syria (AFP) / 8 May 2013 UN-Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi hailed on Wednesday a US-Russia accord to push both sides in the Syrian conflict to end the bloodshed, but cautioned that it was “only a first step.” The deal came after lengthy talks in Moscow between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian President Vladimir Putin and his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov. “This is the first hopeful news concerning that unhappy country in a very long time,” Brahimi said in a statement. “The statements made in Moscow constitute a very significant first step forward. It is nevertheless only a first step,” said Brahimi, who an aide said has been mulling resignation over the apparent absence of a political track to resolve a war that has killed more than 70,000 people. “There is every reason to expect” backing for the accord from the remaining UN Security Council permanent members” — Britain, China and France, the veteran Algerian diplomat added. “It is equally important that the entire region mobilises in the support of the process.” The latest moves came as the United Nations said efforts were underway to secure the release of four Filipino UN peacekeepers seized by gunmen on the Golan Heights. Kerry and Lavrov announced the agreement at a Moscow news conference. “We agreed that Russia and the United States will encourage both the Syria government and opposition groups to find a political solution,” Lavrov said. He said both nations were ready to use all their resources to bring “the government and opposition to the negotiating table.” Lavrov and Kerry said they hoped they could convene an international conference by the end of May to build on a deal agreed by world powers in Geneva last June for a peaceful solution in Syria. The Geneva agreement, which was never implemented, set out a path towards a transitional government but without spelling out the fate of President Bashar al-Assad. The six-point accord — negotiated by previous UN-Arab League envoy to Syria Kofi Annan — “should be the road map… by which the people of Syria can find their way to the new Syria and in which the bloodshed, the killing, the massacres can end”, Kerry said. “The alternative is that there’s even more violence; the alternative is that Syria heads even closer to the abyss, if not over the abyss and into chaos,” Kerry warned. Kerry said only the Assad regime and the opposition can determine the make-up of a transitional government to shepherd the war-torn nation towards democratic elections. “It’s impossible for me as an individual to understand how Syria could possibly be governed in the future by the man who has committed the things that we know have taken place,” Kerry said. “But I’m not going to decide that tonight, and I’m not going to decide that in the end.” Russia has long accused the West of aggravating the Syrian conflict by seeking to topple Assad. And the US and other Western states have accused Russia of failing to use its influence with the regime to halt the bloodshed, and of keeping up military deliveries to Assad. The announcement was welcomed by the European Union, which said it was “very satisfied” and believed the solution to Syria’s conflict lay in “a comprehensive political settlement.” UN efforts were under way on Wednesday to free four peacekeepers from the Philippines who were seized by a rebel group on the Golan in the second such abduction of Filipino forces in two months. Manila called their detention a “gross violation” of international law and urged the Security Council to “use its influence for the early and safe release” of the four. On the ground, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebels shot down a regime fighter jet over the northern province of Aleppo “that was shelling areas near Minnigh military air base… and the pilot’s fate remains unknown”. The Observatory also reported that regime troops had stormed the rebel-held town of Khirbet Ghazaleh in southern Daraa province. The town has been a strategic boon to the rebels, who have used it as a base to block the highway between Damascus and Daraa. The Observatory denied reports that the entire town had been retaken by regime troops though, saying fierce fighting was ongoing. In other developments, a nationwide Internet blackout in Syria continued for a second consecutive day, with the state news agency blaming a technical fault. Taylor Scott International