Oman’s foreign minister Yusuf bin Alawi met Syrian president Bashar Al Assad in Damascus on Monday. The meeting was the latest in months of increased international diplomacy aimed at ending the conflict in Syria, which began in 2011 after peaceful protests aimed at ending the Assad regime’s decades-long rule descended into violence.The Syrian state news agency reported that Mr Alawi had “affirmed Oman commitment to Syria’s unity and sovereignty” and would continue to help find a solution to the conflict. Unlike its Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) partners, Oman has maintained diplomatic ties with the Assad regime throughout the conflict. Oman’s Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said has traditionally pursued policies that kept the country out of regional conflicts and aimed to play a mediator role. The primary sticking point has been the future of Mr Assad. While Russia wants the Syrian strongman to be part of any transition process, the US appears to have little patience with him. And while the international community tries to resolve the crisis around the conference table, the violence in Syria itself continues as Russia conducts its air war — now a month old — against the self-styled Islamic State and other opponents of the regime, and the US and its Gulf allies continue to support groups fighting the government in Damascus. True, the diplomatic manoeuvres are a positive sign, but it is unlikely they will deliver results unless the US and Russia — the two principal international actors in this theatre — loosen their rigid positions. For any chaotic, foreign-backed removal of the Assad regime may create a vacuum that can be filled by IS, or by groups that share the latter’s mediaeval ideology. Here the foreign friends of both the Syrian regime and the opposition must play their part and convince their allies to compromise and reach a negotiated, peaceful settlement to the civil war.
pk.shafaqna.com
