For months, the United Nations has been trying to set up a peace conferencebut it has been delayed repeatedly due to disputes about which groups will be represented and under what conditions.Meanwhile, fighting rages with more than 100,000 dead and nearly nine million driven from their homes.The goal of the conference will be to establish a transitional governing body with full power over the military and armed groups fighting each other.U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.“At long last and for the first time, the Syrian government and opposition will meet at the negotiating table instead of the battlefield,” said he.But just one day after that announcement,the commander of the rebel Free Syrian Army, General Salim Idriss, said that his group will not participate in the conference and that combat will continue, dashing hopes for a ceasefire.Charles Dunne, an analyst at Freedom House, sounded a note of skepticism.“There’s too much bad blood,mistrust and violence on both sides to really create conditions for a real negotiated solution.So I just don’t see it going forward successfully,” said Dunne.U.N. Special Representative for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi has led the negotiations for the peace conference and plans to forge ahead.He called it “a huge opportunity for peace that should not be wasted.”But the pain on the ground continues in the aftermath of repeated government airstrikes.And as government forces, aided by Hezbollah fighters, make gains in the war, analysts doubt Damascus is ready to bargain.
