Syria crisis high on agenda at Munich Security Conference

The Syria crisis is high on the agenda at the ongoing Munich Security Conference, as the first round of the Geneva II peace talks between Syrian warring sides ended Friday without any agreement. Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations-Arab League Special Envoy to Syria, said that he was embarrassed and frustrated about the result of the peace talks. "The situation in Syria is bad. And it is getting worse," said Brahimi. "We thought that if we addressed first some humanitarian issues, at least we could have achieved something, but we didn't," he said. Calling for a resumption of talks in the Swiss city of Geneva on Feb. 10, Brahimi said that he hoped the talks would be "a little bit more constructive" and the opposing sides would be ready to discuss seriously how this war is going to end. Syria's opposition chief Ahmad Jarba accused the Syrian government of issuing very "stubborn" and "arrogant" statements. Jarba confirmed that the opposition would participate in the second round of talks as was proposed by Brahimi. However, the Syrian government has not made a decision. Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs Emma Bonino suggested that the Munich Security Conference should put the priority on discussing how to alleviate the suffering in Syria. Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said that Lebanon's economy was seriously impaired by the Syria conflict with the influx of refugees into Lebanon. "We are now in a very bad situation," he said. Some delegates also worried that a so-called "spillover" effect may result in a surge of violent activities in Lebanon, Iraq and other countries in the region. Still, other delegates would not give up any hopes. "I hope that we will resume our discussions in Geneva on Feb. 10. That' s not 100 percent certain, but I hope it will happen," Brahimi said. He said that the second round of talks was expected to be "a little bit more constructive". "We are pro a political solution," Jarba said and called for more actions from the international community. Bonino, however, said that there was no easy solution to the crisis.