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February 25, 2013

U.S. envoy moves to salvage Syrian talks

By Matthew Lee Associated Press

LONDON — The U.S. is frantically trying to salvage a Syrian opposition conference that John Kerry plans to attend this week during his first official overseas trip as U.S. secretary of state.

A senior Obama administration official said Sunday that Kerry has sent his top Syrian envoy to Cairo in hopes of convincing opposition leaders that their participation in the conference in Rome is critical to addressing questions from potential donors and securing additional aid from the United States and Europe.

Some members of the sharply divided Syrian Opposition Council are threatening to boycott Wednesday’s meeting, which is the centerpiece of Kerry’s nine-nation tour of Europe and the Middle East.

According to the official, U.S. envoy Robert Ford will say that the conference is a chance for foes of Syrian President Bashar Assad to make their case for new and enhanced aid — and get to know America’s new chief diplomat, who has said he wants to propose new ideas to pressure Assad into leave power.

The official was not authorized to discuss sensitive diplomatic matters publicly and spoke only on condition of anonymity.

If the meeting with Kerry were to be postponed, the official said the delay would likely hurt chances for short-term boosts in U.S. aid or shifts in Syria policy, which is now focused on providing non-lethal and humanitarian assistance to the opposition.

The U.S. is concerned that the same kind of infighting that doomed the Syrian National Council may be hindering the SOC, the official said.

In addition to Ford’s trip to Cairo, the top U.S. diplomat for the Mideast, Elizabeth Jones, planned to head to Rome on Monday to add her voice to the argument to opposition members there.

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