The UN envoy for Syria called on Wednesday, March 8, the key actors in the conflict to observe on the political level the same logic of "compromise" adopted after the earthquakes.

"If everyone, and I mean everyone, can consider a compromise with respect to their previous positions, everyone will be a winner", declared Geir Pedersen, at a press conference in Geneva. 

“In the aftermath of the earthquakes, we saw humanitarian measures taken by all parties that overrode previous positions, even if only temporarily,” the Norwegian diplomat said.

On February 6, the disaster killed more than 50,000 people in the two countries, Syria and Turkey.

The United States and European Union have since eased sanctions on Syria, while Damascus has agreed to allow the UN to open two more border crossings to help deliver more aid, as it there was only one before the earthquakes.

A month ago, said Geir Pedersen, "it was not possible to open new border crossing points or to ease the sanctions", and yet "there has been progress on these two points" . 

“We need the same logic that has been applied on the humanitarian front to now be applied at the political level,” he stressed.

An impasse aggravated by the conflict in Ukraine

Several rounds of UN-sponsored talks have taken place since the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011, but the parties have failed to achieve any major breakthrough.

The war in Ukraine has accentuated the deadlock in the discussions that had been underway for several years in Geneva to establish a new Syrian constitution.

Russia, a close ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, no longer wants to come to Geneva to negotiate, Moscow believing that Switzerland is no longer neutral since it imposed sanctions on Russian officials following the invasion of Ukraine. 

"As long as the Russians don't want to come to Geneva, the Syrian government won't want to come to Geneva. I've had months of discussions about this with the Russians and the (Syrian) government," said Geir Pedersen, who still hope for progress.

"Let's be frank: the war in Ukraine and its impact does not help us to facilitate the search for a solution. But as I said, the status quo is not acceptable. We must move forward," he added.

But "all parties must be ready to compromise".

With AFP

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