Western powers rejected a Russian offer of a peace deal in Syria that saw the removal of President Bashar Al-Assad in 2012, according to a senior diplomat involved in secret negotiations.
Former President of Finland and Nobel Peace Laureate Martti Ahtisaari – who was involved in the negotiations – has now said that western powers failed to seize the moment
The Guardian reports that Mr Ahtisaari – who held talks with five permanent members of the UN security council in February 2012 – says Russia offered a three point plan including Assad stepping down once peace talks had begun.
The western powers – the United Kingdom, the United States and France – were all s convinced of Assad’s impending military defeat that they chose to ignore the political offer.
“It was an opportunity lost in 2012,” Ahtisaari said.
Listen below: The Pat Kenny Show look at what is happening in the Syrian war
Ahtissari met with representatives of the five permanent security council members – the aforementioned trio plus China and Russia – in New York.
“The most intriguing was the meeting I had with (Russian Ambassador) Vitaly Churkin because I know this guy,” he said.
“We don’t necessarily agree on many issues but we can talk candidly. I explained what I was doing there and he said: ‘Martti, sit down and I’ll tell you what we should do.’
“He said three things: One – we should not give arms to the opposition. Two – we should get a dialogue going between the opposition and Assad straight away. Three – we should find an elegant way for Assad to step aside.”
The Finnish Nobel prize winner said he was left in doubt about the intention of the Russians to broker a deal: “There was no question because I went back and asked him a second time,” he said.
He relayed the Russian message to the UK, US and France, but found it offering little to entice the western powers, who were then convinced of the inevitability of Assad’s defeat.
“Nothing happened because I think all these, and many others, were convinced that Assad would be thrown out of office in a few weeks so there was no need to do anything,” he said.
Sir John Jenkins – a former director of the Middle East department at Britain’s Home Office and currently executive director of the Middle East branch of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told The Guardian he doubts Ahtisaari's claims: “I think it is true that the general feeling was Assad wouldn’t be able to hold out. But I don’t see why that should have led to a decision to ignore an offer by the Russians to get him to go quickly, as long as that was a genuine offer.
“The weakest point is Ahtisaari’s claim that Churkin was speaking with Moscow’s authority. I think if he had told me what Churkin had said, I would have replied I wanted to hear it from [President Vladimir] Putin too before I could take it seriously. And even then I’d have wanted to be sure it wasn’t a Putin trick to draw us in to a process that ultimately preserved Assad’s state under a different leader but with the same outcome.”
Furthermore, an unnamed diplomat based in the region in 2012 told the paper: “I very much doubt the P3 [the US, UK and France] refused or dismissed any such strategy offer at the time. The questions were more to do with sequencing – the beginning or end of process – and with Russia’s ability to deliver – to get Assad to step down.”
Moscow has been a strong supporter of the Syrian regime, most recently sending military support, including troops.
In the time since then Syria has descended into a state of anarchy, with the country carved up between a myriad of groups, including Assad’s government forces, Islamic State and various other Islamist groups, and the Free Syrian Army. Tens of thousands have been killed, while millions more have been displaced by the fighting.
There have been some 250,000 deaths due to the conflict, with a further 11 million fleeing their homes.
