A Ceasefire in Syria?

The Briefing Room

BBC

News, News Commentary

4.8 • 731 Ratings

🗓️ 22 September 2016

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Why has it been so difficult to find peace in Syria, and what are the complicating factors which are getting in the way of a deal?

In early September the US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced a new agreement to reduce hostilities in Syria - the second attempt this year to initiate a ceasefire in a 5 year long civil war which has so far cost around half a million lives and displaced millions more people.

Within a week of the announcement, the US had bombed President Assad's troops - an accident, it says - and Russia was accused of blowing up an aid convoy. The deal looks like it is disintegrating fast.

So why has it been so hard to find resolution in Syria? Could it be that international intervention is part of the problem - elongating the war, rather than finding resolution?

In this week's programme, David Aaronovitch and guests explore the hugely complex process of negotiating peace in Syria - one which involves multiple international players, hundreds of opposition groups, a jihadi insurgency and an arrogantly defiant Assad regime.

What is the missing link in the current negotiations which could sustain the country's progress on the path to peace?

CONTRIBUTORS

Ambassador Fred Hof, Director of the Atlantic Council's Rafik Hariri Centre for the Middle East and former advisor to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on transition in Syria

Charles Lister, Senior Fellow at the Middle East Institute, Washington DC and author of The Syrian Jihad

Yasmine Nahlawi, Researcher in International Law at Newcastle University and Advocacy & Policy Coordinator for Rethink Rebuild Society

Dr Chris Phillips, Senior Lecturer in International Relations at Queen Mary University of London and author of The Battle for Syria

Producer: Richard Fenton-Smith Researcher: Alex Burton

Transcript

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0:00.0	Today, the United States and Russia are announcing a plan which we hope will reduce violence,
0:10.0	ease suffering, and resume movement towards a negotiated peace and a political transition in Syria.
0:18.0	Earlier this month, the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister
0:22.1	Sergei Lavrov announced a landmark ceasefire in Syria involving unprecedented American-Russian
0:28.5	cooperation. Barely 10 days later, that deal has apparently disintegrated. Russia has been blamed
0:35.4	for an attack on an aid convoy on Monday, leaving at least 20 people dead.
0:40.4	That followed the bombing of Assad's troops last weekend by the United States, for which the US has apologised.
0:47.0	This was the second attempt at securing a ceasefire this year.
0:51.3	But in a conflict involving a stubborn regime fighting dozens of opposition groups
0:56.0	and with a myriad of international players in the mix too, how is peace to be found in Syria?
1:02.9	Step with me into the briefing room where I'll be talking to people with direct experience
1:07.4	in trying to find a resolution. In Washington, D.C., we have two guests.
1:13.5	This is Fred Hoff. I'm the director of the Refique Hariri Center of the Atlantic Council,
1:19.0	and previously served as chief U.S. negotiator for Syrian-Israeli peace, and as an advisor to
1:25.8	Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on political transition in Syria.
1:30.9	And I'm Charles Lister.
1:32.1	I'm a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute here in Washington, D.C., and the author of
1:36.5	the Syrian jihad.
1:37.9	And also joining me from our Manchester studio.
1:40.7	Yasmin Nahlawi, advocacy and policy coordinator of rethink rebuild society and academic of international law.
1:47.7	Okay, thanks very much.
1:49.0	Now, Charles, Lister, let me start with you.
	...

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