Syria: US Created 'Negative Climate' for Talks

US, Syria Trade Blame for Failed Peace Talks

Syria: US Created 'Negative Climate' for Talks

by Jason Ditz

Last week’s round of Geneva II peace talks on Syria have come and gone, and it doesn’t seem possible they could’ve gone worse, with US and Syrian officials eachinsisting the other side is to blame for the failure and what may be the outright collapse of the talks.

Syrian officials insisted the US had been a problem from the start, going into the talks with the goal of creating a “negative climate” and fighting against any discussion of ending the fighting.

Indeed, Secretary of State John Kerry went into the talks insisting the only goal of the conference was regime change, and repeatedly complained Syria was trying to “distract” from that when bringing up things like the al-Qaeda takeover of the north of the country.

Today, Kerry insisted that the Assad government was to blame for “obstruction” of his goal of the talks, and demanded supporters of the Syrian government immediately and unquestioningly endorse regime change.

http://news.antiwar.com/2014/02/16/us-syria-trade-blame-for-failed-peace-talks/