Paris, Moscow admit Syria at stalemate

Paris and Moscow admitted Wednesday that war-torn Syria is at a stalemate, urging each other to pressurise their respective allies to restore a truce and relaunch a peace process.

"Today things are blocked," said French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault. "It is urgent to improve the situation on the ground and to encourage a resumption of negotiations. There's no other answer," Ayrault said after meeting in Paris with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

On Tuesday, Ayrault said he would ask Moscow "to pressure the Damascus regime to stop air strikes claiming thousands of lives, notably in Aleppo". 

But Lavrov, saying "not everything depends on the Russians", called on all sides to "pressure their proteges on the ground".

"The problem will be resolved when our Western partners convince their 'moderate' proteges to withdraw from the positions of the Al-Nusra Front", Al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria, which is fighting the Damascus regime, Lavrov said. 

International efforts to reach a political solution to Syria's five-year war, which has killed more than 280,000 people and displaced millions, have faltered and a February 27 ceasefire brokered by the United States and Russia has all but collapsed.

Damascus and Moscow are continuing air strikes against "terrorist" positions -- where, according to Lavrov, "so-called moderate opposition groups are taking part in hostilities" -- while the US-led coalition against IS is bombing jihadists and backs armed groups on the ground.

On the diplomatic front, two rounds of indirect peace talks have been held so far this year in Geneva, but without making any headway.

UN mediator Staffan de Mistura has called for a resumption in July, but it seems unlikely.

A UN roadmap calls for a transition body to be set up in Damascus by August 1, followed by the drafting of a new constitutions and elections in mid-2017.

Source: AFP