Syria: no date for talks despite urgency

Sochi, Russia: A proposed international conference to try to stop Syria’s civil war should be held as soon as possible, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Friday, but no date has yet been agreed for a meeting that appears to face growing obstacles.

Ban spoke as UN officials announced that the number of refugees fleeing the fighting in Syria, a conflict that has claimed the lives of 80,000 people over the past two years, had exceeded 1.5 million as conditions there deteriorate rapidly.

Western leaders have been cautious about the prospects of the talks achieving any breakthrough, and Russia’s desire that Iran should attend could complicate matters because of potential opposition from the West. The main Syrian opposition, expected to decide its stance next week, has previously demanded President Bashar Al Assad’s exit before any talks.

“We should not lose the momentum,” Ban said of the proposal to bring the Syrian government and opposition representatives to the conference table. “There is a high expectation that this meeting should be held as soon as possible,” he said after talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Lavrov agreed: “The sooner the better,” he told a joint news conference with Ban, who was due to meet President Vladimir Putin later on Friday.

“Moscow proceeds from the position that all the neighbouring countries, Iran and Saudi Arabia, and the participants of the first Geneva conference, must be invited,” Lavrov said, referring to an international meeting on Syria held last June.

Last year’s Geneva talks produced an agreement that a transitional government should be created in Syria, but the United States and Russia disagreed over whether that meant Al Assad must leave power.

Lavrov said opposition participation would be crucial.

“The main thing now is to understand who, from the Syrian sides, is ready to take part in this conference - without that, nothing will happen at all,” he said.

“And the second task is to determine the circle of participants from other countries in addition to Syria.”

The United States said on Thursday that it was not ruling anyone in or out of the conference, while France voiced opposition to Iranian participation.

Lavrov said he did not understand the international uproar created by Moscow’s supplying of weapons to the Syrian regime.

“I do not understand why the media is trying to create a sensation out of this,” he said. “We have not hidden that we supply weapons to Syria under signed contracts, without violating any international agreements, or our own legislation.”

Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said torture devices and other evidence of abuse in government prisons has been found in the city of Raqqa.

Raqqa, in eastern Syria, was overrun in late February by rebels. The rebels facilitated HRW’s access to facilities that had belonged to a security agency and military intelligence in late April.

In a report Friday, the HRW said its researchers found physical evidence indicating Syrians were tortured in cells in detention facilities inspected, including with a device which former detainees said was used to stretch or bend victims’ arms and legs. The group also found documents indicating Raqqa residents were detained for legal actions like demonstrating or helping the injured.