Syrian Deputy Prime Minister Says Syria Ready To Accept Ceasefire If There Are Peace Negotiations

September 22, 2013 • 1:55PM

Syrian Deputy Prime Minister Qadri Jamil told the Guardian's Jonathan Steele in a Sept. 19 interview, that the government of Bashar al-Assad will call for a ceasefire should the long-awaited Geneva peace conference actually convene. "Neither the armed opposition nor the regime is capable of defeating the other side," he said. "This zero balance of forces will not change for a while." He said that such a ceasefire, would have to be kept "under international observation," which could be provided by the UN or observers from neutral or friendly countries. When asked by Steele what the Syrian government would bring to the table in Geneva, Jamil said: "An end to external intervention, a ceasefire and the launching of a peaceful political process in a way that the Syrian people can enjoy self-determination without outside intervention and in a democratic way."

The latest obstacle to a peace conference to emerge is a major disagreement between the U.S. and Russia over who will represent the opposition. The U.S. is demanding that only the Syrian National Council, which has previously stated that it would only attend a peace conference on the condition that Assad resign, first. "The paradox now is that the U.S. is trying to give the SNC the leading role. We're fed up with this monopolistic view," Jamil said. Russia, on the other hand, is proposing that three opposition groups be represented at Geneva, the SNC, the National Co-ordination Body for Democratic Change in Syria, members of which were in Moscow this week for meetings with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov and a combined delegation representing the Kurds.