UN Special Envoy to Syria Says There is A Rare "Window of Opportunity" to End Fighting

Geir O. Pedersen of Norway, the new UN Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Syria, briefs journalists at the UN Headquarters. Source.

In March 2011, the Syrian government used deadly force to suppress pro-democracy protests and demonstrations in the southwestern city of Daraa. Following this use of force, protests calling for the resignation of President Bashar al-Assad - who took control of Syria after his father died in 2000 - swept the nation. As the opposition spread, so did the crackdown measures taken by Assad’s forces. Pro-democracy supporters took up arms against security forces, and violence escalated rapidly.

The conflict became more than just pro-democracy Syrians fighting Assad. Foreign powers became involved, sending money, arms, and troops. Extremist organizations including al-Qaeda and the Islamic State became parties to the conflict. All of this created a protracted humanitarian disaster that has now lasted for a decade.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights - a UK-based monitoring group - has documented 387 118 deaths in the conflict as of December 2020, and around a third of them are civilians. This number does not include the 205 300 people that the Observatory claims are missing and presumed dead - of which 88 000 are civilians believed to have died of torture in government-run prisons. More than two million civilians have suffered injuries or disabilities as a result of the conflict, and more than half of Syria’s pre-war population have been displaced. With gridlock in the UN Security Council and an unwillingness to compromise from any party, the Syrian conflict has no foreseeable end in sight. 

Ten years after the conflict began, the United Nations special envoy to Syria now claims there may be a “window of opportunity” to end the fighting. In an interview with the BBC, Geir Pedersen has pointed to the fact that there is a fragile ceasefire in place between Assad’s forces and rebels in the northwestern province of Idlib. Idlib is the last province under rebel control. "For the first time in 10 years, the frontlines in Syria have not changed," Mr. Pedersen said. "This creates an opportunity." 

Mr. Pedersen is the fourth UN special envoy to Syria since the conflict started. He is focusing his efforts on talking with countries - both allied with and opposed to Assad - to push for a diplomatic solution. He previously worked on a constitutional committee to look at the issue of power-sharing; this committee showed just how unwilling to budge President Assad’s forces were, especially now that they control much more territory than rebels. 

Pedersen continues to urge all four ‘main powers’ in Syria - Russia, Iran, Turkey, and the United States - to push for a peaceful political solution instead of continued warfare. As the Biden administration’s foreign policy priorities have seemingly ignored the Syrian crisis so far, Pedersen warned, "If you forget Syria, then it will come back to haunt you. It will come back to haunt all of us, first and foremost, the Syrian people, but that may have dire consequences for international peace and security as well."

"I believe that we now have a window of opportunity. And we should concentrate on that window of opportunity," he said. "I know what is at stake, and if you can't achieve that... the consequences will first and foremost be paid by the Syrian people."