Syrian conflict peace proposals

Syrian conflict peace proposals are initiatives and plans to resolve the Syrian civil war. Firstly, the Arab League in late 2011 launched two initiatives, without much success. Russia in January 2012 and in November 2013 suggested talks in Moscow between regime and opposition. March-May 2012, hopes were on a United Nations/Arab League plan coordinated by Kofi Annan. Since August 2012, the new UN envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, is preparing an international conference, dubbed ‘Geneva II’, which is now scheduled for 22 January 2014.

Arab League peace plans 2011-2012
In November 2011 – January 2012, the Arab League (AL) twice tried to accomplish an end to Syrian regime (and opposition) violence and convince both parties to start talks instead of fighting. After agreement of the Syrian regime to the AL plan of 19 December the AL sent a monitoring mission to Syria. When (regime) violence kept aggravating, Saudi Arabia on 22 January withdrew its monitors from the mission, and called on Russia, China and all other states to pressure Syria strongly to adhere to the AL peace plan. When bloodshed still didn’t abate, the Arab League on 28 January ended its monitoring mission.

2012
On 30 January 2012, the Russian foreign ministry suggested “informal” talks in Moscow between the Syrian regime and opposition, and said the Syrian authorities had already agreed to the Russian offer. Abdel Baset Seda, a member of the Syrian National Council’s executive committee, told Reuters that the SNC had not received any formal invitation for such talks, but would decline if one arrived: “Our position has not changed and it is that there is no dialogue with (President Bashar al-Assad)”.

2013
7 November 2013, Russia again announced it was trying to broker talks in Moscow between the Syrian government and opposition, seeing that the U.S. and Russian negotiators failed to agree on whether or not Assad should be forced out of office. Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Bogdanov said, the Moscow talks could focus on humanitarian problems as well on some political issues.

Kofi Annan peace plan 2012
The Kofi Annan (Joint Special Envoy for the United Nations and the Arab League) peace plan, launched in March 2012, intended to commit both the Syrian regime and opposition to a cease fire and commit the Syrian regime to initiate deliberations with the opposition on their aspirations and concerns. After Annan on 12 April had assumed that both parties had agreed to a cease fire, the UN already on 1 May had to admit that both parties were violating it.

Eid al-Adha cease fire attempt 2012
Lakhdar Brahimi, an Algerian diplomat, appointed on September 1, 2012, as the new U.N.-Arab League special representative for Syria, appealed on both the Syrian government and the armed opposition to stop the killing during the Islamic festival of Eid al-Adha, which fell that year probably on 26 October 2012, and 3 or 4 days after it. Government and most of the opposition groups said ‘yes’ to his appeal. Yet, the lull in the fighting lasted very short, according to Brahimi, after which both parties accused the other of not having stopped its violence.

Geneva II, 2012-2014
The Geneva II Middle East peace conference is a proposed United Nations (UN) backed international (peace) conference, aiming at bringing Syrian regime and opposition together to discuss a transitional government. Lakhdar Brahimi, UN special envoy to Syria, is pursuing the conference in close cooperation with the U.S. and Russia. The date is now set at 22 January 2014.

Partitioning of Syria
The Middle East Forum, an organization dedicated to "promoting American interests", has suggested either the "hard" (independent states) or "soft" (strong regional governments with a weak federal government) partitioning of Syria as a less than perfect but possibly workable solution to the civil war. Although unlikely to be proposed during the peace talks, and not officially supported by any party to the talks, observers have noted that a de facto partition of the country is already in effect, and that partition may be an unspoken goal of some of the parties.