News & Events

A precarious ceasefire held in the city of Deraa on Monday after negotiators for rebel forces and the Syrian government tried to close to a comprehensive peace agreement to end a three-month siege.

The failure of the last round of United Nations-led talks between the Syrian regime and the opposition in Geneva last month has left diplomats and analysts pondering how to redirect diplomatic efforts in the face of Damascus’s staunch refusal to engage in any negotiated process.

Expectations were high for the fifth round of meetings of the Syrian Constitutional Committee’s at the UN in Geneva this week. But the report of the preliminary end of the committee’s work is devastating.

Russia underscored its role in the political future of Syria as the Moscow-backed Syrian constitutional committee met for the first time under UN auspices to chart a political settlement to end the eight-and-a-half-year civil war.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, have agreed to push back Kurdish fighters from a “safe zone” along the Turkey-Syria border, after marathon talks in Sochi.

US officials have called for the UN to “try other routes to achieving the political solution.” The UN envoy for Syria has failed to make progress on a post-war constitution, once considered a priority for new elections.

Syria’s complex and devastating civil war has drawn in multiple foreign powers since it broke out in 2011. With Russia and Turkey seeking new solutions, DW examines where the major players stand on the conflict.

Delegations from the Syrian government and the political opposition have arrived in the Russian city of Sochi for talks on the war in Syria, which are spearheaded by Russia, Turkey and Iran.