The government’s tight grip on Damascus gives it a major national, political, and psychological advantage over the exiled opposition. Nevertheless, sources involved in the off-and-on again negotiations for a political settlement tell The Irish Times there is movement. An expatriate civil society source involved in talks says the government has taken “little incremental steps” toward a transition over the last year. The civil society source said the constitutional commission was “the only game in town”. All Syrian parties except the Kurds – excluded at Turkey’s insistence – are to be represented on the commission – government, opposition, and civil society, she says.

Source: The Irish Times April 17, 2019 00:00 UTC