By Zachary Gross ’14, News Editor

The first round of talks between the Syrian government and western-backed representatives of the opposition concluded on January 31, without any major agreement to end the bloody civil war that is entering into its third year.

The so-called “Geneva 2,” conference had been in the works for months. Secretary of State John Kerry had been calling since May for a second round of talks. Yet according to the United Nations Special Envoy for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, it was due to the divisive nature of the conflict that neither side had been fully able to commit to a political solution.

After the chemical attack in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta that killed, according to US intelligence estimates, over 1,000 people, there was more international pressure on both sides of the conflict to attend the peace summit. UN Security Council Resolution 2118, which was passed on September 27, not only called for the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons, but also for both sides to engage constructively in peace talks.

After two months of diplomatic arm wrangling, the Syrian government decided to attend Geneva 2 on November 23. It proved, however, much harder to convince the opposition to attend the talks as any sign of negotiating with the Assad regime could harm their image amongst other, non-western-backed opposition groups on the ground.

The opposition was represented at Geneva 2 by a group known as the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces. The west supports this group, but it is unclear what, if any sway, they have on the ground. The decision about whether or not to attend the conference essentially broke the group up. When the group voted, a third boycotted and less than half voted affirmatively. Its biggest block, the Syrian National Council, announced that it was leaving the group after it decided to attend Geneva 2, as did the National Co-ordination Committee.

Many of the opposition groups that did not attend did so because they feared reprisals from more extreme, conservative Islamic opposition groups that are not supported by the west. Chief among them is the Islamic Front, a relatively new coalition of Islamic groups, that has declared any group that negotiates with Assad’s representatives in Geneva to be, “traitors.”

Tyler Dohrn ’14, Co-President of the Young Democrats Club, said, “The group that represented the opposition in Switzerland didn’t have any sort of power over the rebels actually fighting in Syria. It’s not  a surprise that Assad was not willing to make any concessions to them.”

The talks ended without either side moving from their pre-held positions. The opposition continued to demand that Assad step aside so that a transitional government be formed. On the other hand, the regime demanded that all negotiations be predicated on reducing the violence from “terrorists,” a word the regime uses to describe members of the opposition.

As negotiations continued to take place, the war grinded on. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, over 1,900 Syrians died during the week that talks took place.

However, there is some reason to be optimistic. Both sides reached an agreement to provide humanitarian aid to the besieged old Homs, which hadn’t seen food or medical aid in over a year. In conjunction with this temporary humanitarian ceasefire, the two sides have also agreed to another round of talks in Geneva in February.

Dohrn noted, “As long as neither side is willing to budge from their positions, a political solution will be impossible.” With such brutal conditions on the ground, 2014 looks to be another tragic year for Syria.