BEIRUT (AP) – Traction is growing for one of the few ideas left for peace in Syria’s civil war: Work out a series of local cease-fires to try to quiet the bloodiest fronts around the country, without tackling the core issues of the conflict between President Bashar Assad’s government and the rebels.
The U.N. envoy to Syria called Tuesday for such an incremental truce in the northern city of Aleppo as a building block for more – an idea that Assad has said is “worth studying.”
The Islamic State group’s onslaught has given greater urgency to finding some sort of solution for the nearly 4-year-old conflict. But reaching even small-scale truces in the fragmented country of multiple, divided fighting forces could be a near impossible task.
Staffan de Mistura is the third U.N. envoy to try to mediate a solution to the Syrian war. Previous peace initiatives and cease-fire attempts brokered by veteran U.N. diplomats Kofi Annan and Lakhdar Brahimi all ended in failure, including the brief deployment of a U.N. monitoring mission and two rounds of peace talks in Geneva earlier this year meant to discuss a political transition.
Since then, the situation has become infinitely more complicated with the growing influence of extremist groups like Islamic State and the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, and U.S. airstrikes targeting militants in the country.