Russia
proposed more than three years ago that Syria’s president, Bashar
al-Assad, could step down as part of a peace deal, according to a
senior negotiator involved in back-channel discussions at the time.
Former
Finnish president and Nobel peace prize laureate Martti Ahtisaari
said western powers failed to seize on the proposal. Since it was
made, in 2012, tens of thousands of people have been killed and
millions uprooted, causing the world’s gravest refugee crisis since
the second world war.
Ahtisaari
held talks with envoys from the five permanent members of the UN
security council in February 2012. He said that during those
discussions, the Russian ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, laid out a
three-point plan, which included a proposal for Assad to cede power
at some point after peace talks had started between the regime and
the opposition.
But he said
that the US, Britain and France were so convinced that the Syrian
dictator was about to fall, they ignored the proposal.
“It was an
opportunity lost in 2012,” Ahtisaari said in an interview.
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