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3Novices:Major powers shift positions on Syria during unprecedented talks

VIENNA // Major powers looked to be significantly shifting their positions on the Syrian conflict on Friday as they met for unprecedented multilateral peace talks in the Austrian capital.

It came as American officials said the United States would deploy “fewer than 50” special operations forces to northern Syria to work with local forces in the fight against ISIL. Although the number is small, it marks a significant escalation in Washington’s involvement in Syria and will see US troops working openly on the ground in the country for the first time.

UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan took part in the Vienna peace talks along with diplomats from 16 other countries, including the United States, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Iran. Diplomats from the United Nations and the European Union were also present.

During the talks, Iran signalled that it backed a six-month transition period in Syria followed by elections to decide president Bashar Al Assad’s fate.

Western officials later said powers were considering a new plan that would involve setting up a ceasefire in Syria within the next four to six months, followed by the formation of a transition government featuring Mr Al Assad and opposition members.

How long Mr Al Assad could remain in power under the transition was still unclear however.

Sources describing the Iranian proposal said it amounted to Tehran – Mr Al Assad’s closest ally – dropping its insistence on the leader remaining in office.

But the Syrian president’s opponents say a new election would keep him in power unless other steps were taken to remove him. His government held an election as recently as last year, which he easily won.

“Iran does not insist on keeping Assad in power forever,” Iranian deputy foreign minister Amir Abdollahian, a member of Tehran’s delegation at the talks, was quoted by Iranian media as saying.

A senior official from the Middle East familiar with the Iranian position said Tehran could go as far as ending support for Mr Al Assad after the transition period.

“Talks are all about compromises and Iran is ready to make a compromise by accepting Assad remaining for six months,” the official said. “Of course, it will be up to the Syrian people to decide about the country’s fate.”

Syrian opposition figures, already bristling from having been excluded from Friday’s talks about the fate of their country, dismissed the reported Iranian proposal as a ruse.

“Who is mad enough to believe that under these circumstances in Syria, anybody can hold elections?” said George Sabra, a member of the Western-backed political opposition, the exiled Syrian National Coalition. “Bashar al-Assad and his regime is the root of the terrorism in Syria.”

The powers will meet again in two weeks for another round of talks, French foreign minister Laurent Fabius said.

“We discussed all issues, even the most difficult,” he told reporters after Friday’s talks.

“There are points of disagreement, but we advanced enough for us to meet again, in the same configuration, in two weeks.”

Friday’s talks brought together all of the main foreign actors in the Syrian conflict for the first time. Other countries involved included Turkey, Italy, Britain, Lebanon, Jordan, Russia, Iraq, Egypt, Germany, Qatar, France, Oman and China.

One senior American official said that a first group of forces – possibly a couple of dozen – will go to Syria relatively soon to assess the situation and determine which groups on the ground the US can best work with, including moderate Kurdish and Arab fighters. More special operations forces would follow once the US better determines what the needs are. The initial forces to move in are likely to come from within the region, and they may be supplemented later with commandos from outside the area.

The move comes after weeks of deliberation on how to revive the US-led coalition’s struggling effort in Syria and Washington’s failed train-and-equip mission there.

* Agencies



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