A political settlement is the only way to solve the Syrian crisis. This encouraging statement appears in the final declaration of the G8 Summit, which recently took place in Northern Ireland. And if its provisions are implemented, it will be perhaps the first recognition by the West of the polycentric world’s realities.
Syria, there was no real doubt about it, has become the main topic of today’s meeting of the G8. And the debate began even before the leaders came together at the five-star Lough Erne Resort.
As an overture, the U.S. announced that it has evidence of chemical weapons use by Syrian government forces. As a matter of fact, in small and last year. And this counted as crossing the ‘red line’ right now. That is why Washington announced that it will begin military assistance to the rebels. True, the timing and range of assistance was not mentioned.
Since France and Britain have by now pushed for the abolition of the EU embargo on arms shipments to Syria and accepted chemical attacks by government troops, the U.S. by this step on the eve of the G8 made an impression that at the summit Putin, opposing Al-Assad's removal from power by force would appear to be one against all.
Looking ahead, we say that attempts to intimidate Russia by international isolation continued until the announcement of the summit’s final declaration, when every now and then the information leaked to the media that a general statement on Syria will be accepted without Russia’s signature.
However, Russia’s position remained firm.
Moscow immediately declared unfounded the evidence of chemical weapons use by Syrian troops and considered the military aid to the rebels a move aimed at disrupting the peace conference on Syria, jointly initiated in May by Russia and the U.S.
Then, after a meeting with Cameron, Putin very emotionally explained his position to journalists. This was followed by two hours’ talks with the U.S. president, after which Obama and Putin coming out of the press with an air of detachment stated the divergence of positions on Syria.
All seemed to indicate that now at the plenary meeting the Russian president will have to oppose the seven summit participants at once. However, apparently everything turned out differently.
Speaking to the press after the summit Putin stressed that not once he did not feel as ‘one against all’ on the Syrian issue. “We had a general discussion. Someone agreed with someone else, someone argued, but it was not such that Russia alone defended its approaches to solving the Syrian problem,” said the Russian leader.
Judging by the final declaration, it was so.
First, it says nothing about Assad’s fate, although throughout the conflict both the opposition, and the Friends of Syria, and the authors of draft resolutions of the UN Security Council that was blocked by Moscow and Beijing, unanimously talked about the need for his resignation.
Second, the leaders of the Group of Eight nations condemned human rights violations by all parties to the conflict in Syria.
Third, in essence, the accusation against the official Damascus of the chemical weapons use was withdrawn. “The leaders have condemned the use of chemical weapons by any party to the conflict and expressed the need to allow the UN to conduct an investigation in order to establish facts,” said David Cameron. It is the UN that will be the judge of that.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the idea of an international conference on Syria has been confirmed. “We are strong for the early holding of a conference on Syria in Geneva to fully implement the Geneva Communique of June 30, 2012, which provides for a series of steps, beginning with the creation of a transitional governing body mutually agreed by parties to the conflict, with all the executive powers,” the final document notes.
With such wordings it is absurd to begin official military aid to the rebels.
The U.S. authorities are completely satisfied with the G8’s decision to continue to seek a political settlement of the conflict in Syria, as reported by the Western media citing a top source in the U.S. administration. “The content of the final communique is fully consistent with the objectives pursued by the U.S. president in the course of the talks with the leaders of other countries, including the Russian president, Vladimir Putin,” said the journalists’ interlocutor.
Naturally, they suit Moscow too.
Final communique of the G8’s meeting to the extent that concerns Syria, provides a good basis for the continuation of diplomatic negotiations for a peaceful settlement in this Middle Eastern country, said Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov in an exclusive interview with Itar-Tass
At the same time, in the grand scheme of things, it comes to the formation of a new political situation in the world, believes Dmitry Suslov, Dmitry Suslov, Deputy Director of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies at the Higher School of Economics.
“For the West to recognize that Assad can win, or at least the mere fact of negotiations with his participation will mean one of the biggest political defeats in the history after the end of the Cold War. So long as even a hypothetical retention of Assad means that the West no longer determines events, says the analyst.
According to Suslov, “Syria must show either outlines of a new multipolarity, where Russia will act on equal terms, as is already happening in the case of Syria, or we will only observe the effects comparable to those that occur in Libya. But this is just the inertia of unipolarity.”
