No Hope for Dialogue between Syrian Government and Opposition

- The government of Bashar Assad has set a condition for dialogue with the opposition with which they should not have held arms and committed any crimes during the two years of conflicts in this country. 

- The objective of a major part of the opposition is to overthrow the government and gain power, not through elections but rather by continuing the war and bloodshed until a possible victory.

- The pre-condition set by the opposition regarding the resignation of Bashar Assad's government is proposed at a time when first the government does not accept any pre-conditions to begin dialogue with the opposition and second it believes that the future government must be determined through the direct votes of the people.

- Nevertheless, part of the opposition, especially the Takfiris and the Salafis and part of the Free Syrian Army, basically do not believe in holding elections and determining the next government through the people's votes.

- Therefore, until the issue of holding elections does not transform into a culture for the Syrian opposition, there will be no hope for constructive dialogue between the government and the opposition.

- There might be small dialogues between the government and part of the Syrian opposition, but it seems impossible that the armed opposition will be willing to negotiate with the government considering the fact that it still believes in using weapons against the government. 

- On this basis and considering the fact that part of the Syrian opposition still believe that the only way to end the crisis is through continuing the war, hoping that possible dialogues between the government and part of the opposition could end the war and bloodshed in Syria is naïve and simplistic.

- Considering the prolongation of war and ineffectiveness of the plans proposed by regional and extra-regional players, the crisis in this country has practically reached a deadlock and moving past it is not simple and it must unfortunately even be said that right now there is no solution to end the Syrian crisis.

- Compared with the beginning of the unrest and crisis in Syria, the regional and extra-regional players have seriously changed their positions. The agreement made between the US and Russia, which no longer is based on Bashar Assad's resignation, or Saudi Arabia's retreat from the downfall of the Syrian government and its emphasis on achieving a political solution have created hopes for the termination of the crisis in Syria.

- Nevertheless, these hopes can become realities when global consensus with regard to ending the Syrian crisis through a political solution is created. But so far such a consensus has not been formed and there are still serious differences both inside Syria and outside its borders with regard to the method of ending the crisis in this country.

- What Syria needs today to end the civil war and bloodshed is for both sides to put their weapons aside. One way to reach this objective is halting the arms and financial aids of the regional and extra-regional countries, particularly Turkey and Qatar. As long as weapons are poured into Syria, there will be no hope of ending the civil war in this country.