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U.N. Envoy Calls for a Transitional Government in Syria U.N. Envoy Calls for a Transitional Government in Syria
(about 1 hour later)
MOSCOW — Lakhdar Brahimi, the international envoy on a mission to Damascus seeking an end to the escalating civil conflict in Syria, said on Thursday that a transitional government should be granted full executive powers until new elections can be held. BEIRUT, Lebanon — Lakhdar Brahimi, the international envoy on a mission to Damascus seeking an end to the escalating civil conflict in Syria, said on Thursday that a transitional government with full executive authority should be established, perhaps within months, and should rule the country until new elections could be held.
Mr. Brahimi did not say who would serve in such a government, and he offered no details about the role Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, would play — if any — during the transitional period. “This government must have all the powers of the state,” Mr. Brahimi said. Mr. Brahimi did not say who would serve in such a government, and he offered no details about the role Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, would play — if any — during a transitional period. But his comments suggested that if Mr. Assad did remain in the country, he would retain none of his authority.
His remarks to journalists in Damascus followed intensive talks this weeks with Mr. Assad and a range of opposition figures. “All the powers of government should be with this government,” Mr. Brahimi said in reference to the proposed transitional authority.
The envoy’s comments to reporters in Damascus were his most detailed since traveling to Syria on Sunday, where he met with Mr. Assad and Syrian opposition members in an effort to revive hopes of a political solution to the nearly two-year old crisis. But, even as Mr. Brahimi and other international diplomats warned on Thursday of the high cost Syrians would pay if the envoy’s efforts failed, there was no immediate sign of a new diplomatic formula that would be acceptable to both the government and its opponents.
“The situation is bad and worsening. The Syrian people are suffering unbearably,” Mr. Brahimi said. “We do not speak in a vacuum about theoretical things.”
Over the past month, Mr. Brahimi, as the special Syria representative from the United Nations and Arab League, has consulted extensively with the United States and Russia in hopes of fulfilling an accord reached in Geneva this summer calling for dialogue between Syria’s government and the opposition.Over the past month, Mr. Brahimi, as the special Syria representative from the United Nations and Arab League, has consulted extensively with the United States and Russia in hopes of fulfilling an accord reached in Geneva this summer calling for dialogue between Syria’s government and the opposition.
“The Syrian people seek genuine change,” he said. He emphasized the importance of preserving state institutions and warned that military intervention would “lead to the destruction of the Syrian state,” according to Russia’s Itar-Tass news service. As a Syrian government delegation met with Russia’s top diplomats in Moscow on Thursday, a spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Aleksandr K. Lukashevich, said there was no specific plan under discussion.
“There will be no victor in this war,” he said. Russia, a key ally of the government in Damascus, has long pointed to the Geneva agreement, which calls for the creation of a transitional government and talks between the antagonists as the only acceptable basis for resolving conflict. However, the agreement does not address the question of Mr. Assad’s fate — a key problem, since many in the opposition say he must step down as a precondition for talks.
As a Syrian government delegation met with Russia’s top diplomats in Moscow, a spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Aleksandr K. Lukashevich, said there was no specific plan under discussion that would include a transitional government. Opposition figures have suggested that Mr. Brahimi presented Mr. Assad with offers to either cede some of his authority or leave the country, but Mr. Lukashevich denied that. “There was and is no plan,” he said. In Damascus on Thursday, Mr. Brahimi also denied that he had proposed a specific plan, as many opposition members had asserted in recent days. And he said there was no agreement between the United States and Russia that he was pressing Mr. Assad to accept. “I wish there was a U.S.-Russia proposal for me to sell,” he said, adding: “I did not come here to sell.”
Russia, a key ally of the government in Damascus, has long pointed to the Geneva agreement, which calls for negotiation between the government and the opposition, as the only acceptable basis for resolving the conflict. The envoy said that the Geneva framework “includes elements that are sufficient for a plan to end the crisis in the next few coming months,” mentioning elements that included a peacekeeping force to monitor a cease-fire, and the establishment of a transitional government.
In an interview released late on Thursday night, Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov said the chances for a negotiated solution were "dwindling, but they still exist, and it is necessary to fight for them." To achieve this, he said, it would be necessary to unite all the external players, who "should speak with one voice" and insist that the government and opposition agree to negotiate. And he said that the transition “should not be allowed to lead to the collapse of the state and its institutions.”
He said that recent trilateral contacts between Mr. Brahimi, the United States and Russia showed that there is still "possibility of finding points of contact, if we give up attempts to rewrite"  the Geneva agreement. Mr. Brahimi’s comments were met with pessimism by some opposition members, who have long said that any arrangement that left Mr. Assad in the country was unacceptable. They have also called for the dismantling of state institutions tied to the government’s repression, especially the security and intelligence services.
"A double game in the current situation in Syria is extremely dangerous," he said, in a lengthy year-end interview with the Interfax news service. "At minimum, it allows for further militarization of the conflict, its aggravation, the growth of radical moods, terrorist threats, and religious violence. The alternative to a peaceful solution is bloody chaos."  Samir Nachar, a prominent member of the main opposition coalition who is currently in Istanbul, said: “My biggest fear is that opposition will be put under so much pressure to accept an agreement that the Russians and Americans have finally reached.”
But a peace agreement requires both Mr. Assad’s allies and Syrian opposition forces to agree to negotiate — a long shot, said Dmitri V. Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center. Even an agreement that required both Mr. Assad’s allies and Syrian opposition forces to simply agree to negotiate was a long shot, said Dmitri V. Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center.
Earlier this year, he said, influential policy makers in Moscow favored a process like the one that led to the Dayton accords to end the Bosnian war of the 1990s: “Bring them together, close the door and don’t let them out until they reach an agreement.” He said he had serious doubts that either Moscow or Washington could induce the two sides to sit down at the table. Earlier this year, he said, influential policy makers in Moscow favored a process like the one that led to the Dayton accords to end the Bosnian war of the 1990s: “Bring them together, close the door and don’t let them out until they reach an agreement.” He said he had serious doubts that either Moscow or Washington could induce the two sides in Syria to sit down at the table.
“Frankly, I see very little leverage that Russia has over Assad,” Mr. Trenin said. “Even if the United States were prepared to lean hard on the opposition, or push them toward some kind of negotiation, I do not see the gulf states or the Turks backing that move.”“Frankly, I see very little leverage that Russia has over Assad,” Mr. Trenin said. “Even if the United States were prepared to lean hard on the opposition, or push them toward some kind of negotiation, I do not see the gulf states or the Turks backing that move.”
In recent weeks, Mr. Lukashevich said Thursday, Moscow has ratcheted up its diplomacy in an effort to “intensify dialogue, not only with the government but also with the opposition groups.” In recent weeks, Mr. Lukashevich said, Moscow had ratcheted up its diplomacy in an effort to “intensify dialogue, not only with the government but also with the opposition groups.”
Mr. Lavrov and other top Russian officials met Thursday with Syria’s deputy foreign minister, Faisal al-Meqdad. Mr. Brahimi will have his own meeting with Mr. Lavrov in Moscow on Saturday. Top Russian officials met on Thursday in Moscow with Syria’s deputy foreign minister, Faisal al-Meqdad. Mr. Brahimi will have his own meeting with the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, in Moscow on Saturday.
Mr. Lukashevich said Russia was open to talks with Syria’s national opposition coalition, which has been recognized by many Western governments as representing the Syrian people.Mr. Lukashevich said Russia was open to talks with Syria’s national opposition coalition, which has been recognized by many Western governments as representing the Syrian people.
“We are not rejecting this dialogue,” he said. “On the contrary, we are holding it very vigorously with all opposition groups who are also interested in getting better insight into the Russian approach.”“We are not rejecting this dialogue,” he said. “On the contrary, we are holding it very vigorously with all opposition groups who are also interested in getting better insight into the Russian approach.”
“It is obviously another question when and at what level they will take place,” he said.“It is obviously another question when and at what level they will take place,” he said.
Among the widely discussed sticking points for a possible transition plan is what role, if any, Mr. Assad and his allies would play in the process. Among the options being floated this week are an arrangement that would allow him to remain in office for most of or the rest of his presidential term, which ends in 2014, but transfer much of his authority to a transitional body. A separate question is whether the agreement would allow him to run for re-election in 2014. Mr. Lukashevich said the Geneva agreement had not established Mr. Assad’s departure as a precondition for talks. As for Mr. Assad’s ability to run for re-election, he said, Russia had no role in determining this.
Mr. Lukashevich said the Geneva agreement did not establish Mr. Assad’s departure as a precondition for talks. As for Mr. Assad’s ability to run for re-election, he said, Russia had no role in determining this.
“We are not lawyers for this regime,” he said. “We would prefer that the Syrians themselves should determine the form and prospects for their state’s further development, and to get away from the horrible prospect of the collapse of the state along religious lines. So the question is more to the Syrians than to the Russians.”“We are not lawyers for this regime,” he said. “We would prefer that the Syrians themselves should determine the form and prospects for their state’s further development, and to get away from the horrible prospect of the collapse of the state along religious lines. So the question is more to the Syrians than to the Russians.”

Ellen Barry reported from Moscow, and Kareem Fahim from Beirut, Lebanon.

Kareem Fahim reported from Beirut, and Ellen Barry from Moscow. Hwaida Saad contributed reporting from Beirut, and Hala Droubi from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.