Syrian peace process
On 30 October 2015, further talks started in Vienna involving officials from the U.S., the EU, Russia, China and various regional actors such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey and, for the first time, Iran.
In November 2011–January 2012, the Arab League (AL) twice tried to accomplish an end to Syrian government (and opposition) violence and convince both parties to start talks instead of fighting.
Violence continued and Saudi Arabia on 22 January withdrew its monitors from the mission, and called on Russia, China and all other states to pressure Syria strongly to adhere to the AL peace plan.
Abdel Baset Seda, a member of the Syrian National Council's executive committee, told Reuters that the SNC had not received any formal invitation for such talks, but would decline if one arrived: "Our position has not changed and it is that there is no dialogue with (President Bashar al-Assad)".
During those discussions, the Russian ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, proposed a three-point plan that would bring the Syrian government and opposition to the negotiation table and result in Assad stepping down as president.
Other Western diplomats refute Ahtisaari's claims, with one stating, "I very much doubt the P3 [the US, UK and France] refused or dismissed any such strategy offer at the time.
"[7] On 7 November 2013, Russia again announced it was trying to broker talks in Moscow between the Syrian government and opposition, seeing that the U.S. and Russian negotiators failed to agree on whether or not Assad should be forced out of office.
An "action group" conference (now referred to as Geneva I Conference on Syria) was held on Saturday 30 June 2012, in Geneva, initiated by the then UN peace envoy to Syria Kofi Annan,[11] and attended by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov, a representative of China, British Foreign Secretary Hague, and Kofi Annan.
Lakhdar Brahimi, an Algerian diplomat, appointed on 1 September 2012, as the new UN–Arab League special representative for Syria, appealed on both the Syrian government and the armed opposition to stop the killing during the Islamic festival of Eid al-Adha, which fell that year probably on 26 October 2012, and 3 or 4 days after it.
[26] The Four committees initiative is a proposal put forward by United Nations envoy Staffan de Mistura on 29 July 2015 as a way to start the peace process in the Syrian civil war.
[29] On 23 October 2015, the Foreign Ministers of the United States, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Turkey met and talked in Vienna, Austria, to find a way to end the Syrian conflict.
[31][32] The second round of the Vienna talks held in mid-November produced an agreement on the need to convene Syrian government and opposition representatives in formal negotiations under UN auspices with a target date of 1 January 2016.
[37] On 18 December 2015, the UN Security Council, having overcome the gridlock on Syria that had persisted since October 2011,[38][39][40] unanimously passed Resolution 2254 (2015), endorsing the ISSG's transitional plan that set out a timetable for formal talks and a unity government within six months; the resolution put UN special envoy Staffan de Mistura in charge of organising Syria talks.
On 22 February 2016, in Munich, foreign ministers of Russia and the U.S., as co-chairs of the ISSG,[54] announced that they had concluded a deal to seek a nationwide cessation of hostilities in Syria to begin a week later.
[56][57] On 10 September 2016, Russia and U.S. reached a deal on establishing a cease fire between the Syrian Assad government and a US-supported coalition of so-called 'mainstream Syrian opposition rebel groups' including umbrella group 'High Negotiations Committee' (HNC), effective from 12 September, while jointly agreeing to continue attacks on Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (former al-Nusra Front) and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
[59] In mid-December 2016, Vladimir Putin of Russia and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey agreed to suggest Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, as a new venue for carrying on the Syria peace talks.
[60] On 20 December 2016, the foreign ministers of Iran, Turkey, and Russia agreed, pursuant to the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2254 (Dec. 2015), to hold Syria peace talks in Astana, Kazakhstan.
[69] The opposition side included Mohammed Alloush, the political leader of Jaysh al-Islam,[70] which Russia had proposed designating as a terrorist organisation.
[74] After the talks in January 2017, Russia offered a draft for a future constitution of Syria, which would inter alia turn the "Syrian Arab Republic" into the "Republic of Syria", introduce decentralized authorities as well as elements of federalism like "association areas", strengthen the parliament at the cost of the presidency, and realize secularism by abolishing Islamic jurisprudence as a source of legislation.
The document will guide the activities of a joint operational group to be formed by Russia, Turkey and Iran that was agreed to be set up during the earlier meeting in January in Astana.
[82] On 4 May 2017, at the fourth round of the Astana talks, representatives of Russia, Iran, and Turkey signed a memorandum to establish four "de-escalation zones" in Syria.
[89] On 14 September 2017, representatives of Iran, Russia and Turkey in Astana agreed on the implementation of a fourth "de-escalation zone", in the northern governorate of Idlib.
[93][94] Kazakh Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov affirmed Kazakhstan's commitment to serving as a neutral venue for continued peace talks.
[98] The talks aimed at ending the nearly seven-year-long conflict in the country, with the humanitarian crisis in the besieged Eastern Ghouta suburb of Damascus at the table.
The committee is planned to include 50 people each from government, opposition and civil society, with 15 from each group to work specifically on drafting proposals for a constitution.
[108] The committee's third session of negotiations, among the 45-member small body, with 15 members from the government, opposition, and civil society, respectively, started in late August 2020.
[111] The talks ended without any definitive ceasefire agreement, reportedly due to the anti–government side's refusal to accept new Russian terms regarding control of the Idlib province.
[113] In a joint statement, Russia, Iran, and Turkey reaffirmed their stance to oppose separatist plans aimed at undermining a unified Syria.
All participants called upon the international community and the UN to increase assistance to Syria including infrastructure such as water, food, electricity, schools, and hospitals.
[119] On December 24, 2024, the Syrian transitional government announced that the country's new de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa had met with representatives of the various rebel factions and that an agreement had been reached on the dissolution of all the groups and their integration under the supervision of the ministry of defence.
