The international roadmap for a Syrian peace process, approved unanimously by the United Nations Security Council, was a rare display of unity among major powers on a conflict that has claimed more than a quarter million lives, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said.

Kerry praised “the unprecedented degree of unity” in the council, which previously has been stymied in finding a political solution in Syria. He called Friday’s agreement “a milestone.”

The resolution expresses its support for a Syrian-led political process facilitated by the United Nations. It formalizes a target of six months for establishing a transitional government, followed by elections within 18 months.

It also calls for the implementation of a nationwide cease-fire in parallel with intra-Syrian peace talks.

Absent from the text, though, is any mention of the future of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Western countries have called for his departure, but Russia and China say he should not be required to leave power as a precondition for peace talks, leaving the issue unresolved.

Syrian opposition groups

Syrian opposition groups voiced their displeasure with the plan Saturday. The country’s fractured opposition has insisted Assad must go to achieve peace.

The joint United States and Russian initiative foresees talks between the rebels and the regime.

Khaled Khoja, head of the Istanbul-based National Coalition, the main Syrian opposition group, called the resolution unrealistic, saying it “undermines the outcome of the meetings of revolutionary forces in Riyadh and waters down previous U.N. resolutions concerning a political solution in Syria.”

Khoja made the comments to the French news agency AFP.

Fellow coalition member Samir Nashar said bombing by the regime and Russia must stop for there to be a sustainable cease-fire.

On Friday, Kerry expressed optimism that the plan would move along swiftly.

“In January we hope and expect to be at the table and to be able to implement a full cease-fire,” he said. “And that means all the barrel bombs will stop, all the bombing, all the shooting, all the attacks on either side.”

Kerry said Assad had “lost the ability to unite the country,” but he also said that demanding Assad’s immediate departure was “prolonging the war.”

But the resulting agreement “gives the Syrian people a real choice, not between Assad and Daesh, but between war and peace,” Kerry said, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State extremists.

Step toward peace

Also Saturday, Turkey Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu called the U.N. resolution a positive step toward resolving the lengthy and costly civil war through diplomacy.

However, Davutoglu said does not provide protection for the Syrian people, who have already suffered so much during nearly five years of bloodshed, from the “cruelty of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.”

Davutoglu said Turkey will continue its efforts to find a political transition in Syria in line with the Geneva Communique on Syria of 2012.

That first international effort to draft a potential settlement of the Syrian political crisis envisioned a transitional governing body would be formed by mutual consent of all parties involved in the conflict.

The Turkish prime minister was speaking Saturday in Istanbul, hours after the Security Council voted in New York to endorse the new roadmap for peace in Syria, finalized at a meeting earlier in the day by the 20-nation International Syria Support Group – the United States and its allies, Russia, Arab states and others involved in the Syrian war.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country has not used all of its military capability in Syria and may use more military means there if necessary.

“We see how effectively our pilots and intelligence agents coordinate their efforts with various kinds of forces — the army, navy and aviation, how they use the most modern weapons,” Putin said. “I want to stress that these are by far not all of our capabilities. We have more military means, and we will use them if need be.”

Russia has been conducting an air campaign in Syria since September, targeting Syrian rebel groups fighting the Assad regime as well as Islamic State fighters.

Russian motives

Western governments and military analysts have accused Russia of placing a much higher priority on preserving the government of Assad, a long-time Russian ally, than on the U.S. objective of targeting extremists.

More than 250,000 people have died since the Assad government’s crackdown on political protests turned into a full-blown civil war in 2011.

More than half of Syria’s entire prewar population has been uprooted by the war – families that either have fled abroad as refugees or are displaced internally, driven from their homes by violence.

Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have made the dangerous and often deadly journey across the Mediterranean into Europe this year.

Some material for this report came from AFP.
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