2013: crunch in Syria?

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke for to media after discussing the Syrian crisis with international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi at a meeting in Moscow on Saturday. "The main obstacle to having the crisis settled is unwillingness to compromise on either side. Accordingly, Russia continues to urge world powers to try to persuade the conflicting sides to become less uncompromising and seize on the resolutions of the Geneva conference on Syria as a real chance to find a way out of the current mayhem in their country." Unfortunately, the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, which has already been recognize by the US, the EU and the Arab League as the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people, continues to insist that the Assad regime must go. Lavrov said Russia wants to explain to the Coalition’s leader Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib that this position leads nowhere: "We offered him a meeting in Moscow or a neutral capital of his choice. But strangely, he declined the offer, saying Russia must change its position first and even apologize for its previous stance on Syria. I suspect Mr Khatib has little experience as a politician. I believe it would be much better for his campaign if he was informed about Russia’s position first hand, rather than through biased and sometimes grossly distorted reports carried by the Western media." Mr Brahimi rejected speculation that the UN is considering a peacekeeping mission in Syria. Mr Lavrov described the latest recall of United Nations and Arab League observers from Syria as an unforgivable blunder. He argued that the UN must expeditiously mount a new and much stronger Syria peacekeeping mission. Lavrov and Brahimi agreed that the Syrians are now unable to start a national dialogue without outside help. They said they hope the required help is on its way, and the Syrian conflict will start fizzling out before next summer.