Geneva 2 gets Syrian rivals to break the ice

Yesterday, at a Geneva hotel and within the same room, representatives of the government of Bashar Al Assad and from Syrian opposition groups briefly met face-to-face for the first time in 34 months of death and destruction.

Previously, both delegations had met with UN and Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi separately to at least see if there were grounds for talks between the two bitterly divided sides. After all the bloodshed, horror and crimes against Syrians on all sides, it’s not surprising that the planned face-to-face meeting was postponed by a day.

But now it appears as if both sides have taken the step to face their bitter enemy across a table rather than across a battered and bloodied street-scape littered with broken bodies. For getting the two sides into the same room, Geneva 2 can be considered a success. Now the real work begins. This meeting will never resolve the future of Syria. Both sides are too entrenched for that to happen.

But this meeting can at least lay the groundwork for local ceasefires to be put in place; for barrel bombs to stop falling from the sky; for humanitarian aid to reach those millions displaced from their homes; and for food and medicine to reach those most in need.

The easy step in a conflict is to reach for a gun and shoot. The hardest step is to sit across from your enemy – and talk.