International and Arab envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi is trying to maintain his mediation alive through all possible means. However, Brahimi is smart enough to conclude from his latest meeting in Damascus with President Bashar al-Assad that this regime will not allow for the success of any mediation to end the crisis in Syria unless the opposition were to announce its defeat and unless the world were to acknowledge its right to remain in power despite all the destruction and killings that occurred in the country. Indeed, what Al-Assad told Brahimi during that meeting – in response to a question on the role of the Syrian president in the interim phase – was sufficient to convince anybody that any political solution or settlement between the regime and the opposition will not be viable unless the oppositionists were to surrender to the president's terms and to his convictions that these are a bunch of traitors and terrorists. Otherwise, the regime's violent military machine will keep on trying to annihilate the oppositionists as it is doing now. According to the pro-Syrian regime media, the Syrian president is still convinced that he will be victorious and that his regime will be able to survive and win its war against the opposition. In light of such a conviction, it is obviously difficult to talk about mediation or settlement since a settlement, by definition, requires that the two sides meet in the middle. Brahimi's latest attempt at maintaining his mission alive consisted of him reverting to the so-called initiative of the Syrian Coalition's head, Moaz al-Khatib. Brahimi considered that this initiative revived the hope of reaching a political solution for the Syrian crisis. But as Brahimi reverted to this initiative, he overlooked two things: first, the members of the National Council and the Coalition rejected the inclusion of the Syrian president in any solution since they hold him responsible for the bloodshed in Syria. Second, and most importantly, the regime itself completely ignored Al-Khatib's initiative. The Minister of Information, Omran al-Zohbi, responded by saying that any negotiations must take place under the regime's ceiling and on the Syrian territory. Al-Zohbi also considered that the opposition's talk about its desire to hold a dialogue is ridden with lies because the opposition is alluding to a dialogue according to its own terms and anyone who wants a dialogue must not impose any terms. Under such circumstances that he is well aware of, how can Brahimi ask the Syrians to dream about a potential political solution to their crisis through negotiations based on Moaz al-Khatib's initiative to be held in one of the most important UN facilities outside Syria? “How is it possible to form an “acceptable" delegation to conduct negotiations with the Syrian cabinet, and who are the figures to be included in that delegation and that the regime would “accept?" The opposition has clearly indicated that it will not accept to negotiate with any Syrian official “whose hands have been soiled with the Syrians' blood." Thanks to his long-term dealing with the Syrian regime since the days of his mediation of the Lebanese crisis, Lakhdar Brahimi knows that the officials which the opposition is holding responsible are the only parties capable of taking any definitive action to put out the Syrian fire. He also knows that any attempt at disregarding these figures by trying to designate other negotiators such as Farouk al-Sharaa or others will be the object of the regime's irony, especially that everyone knows that these persons' authority in Syria is close to nil. Brahimi may have the right to defend his job and to cling to it. There might be some special circumstances that push him to do so. However, he must not revive the hopes of a possible political solution with the Syrian regime. The truth is that any solution to the Syrian crisis may only be achieved through the victory of the opposition on the ground. This is a difficult and long mission in light of the opposition's weakness and the regime's major capacity for oppression. The other way around is for the regime to regain its oppressive control over all the Syrian territory. This victory will be at the obvious price of the destruction of the remaining Syrian cities and landmarks, and the death of thousands more.
