![\"577706-ki-moon\"](\"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/577706-ki-moon-e1390427107412.jpg\")
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The Geneva II talks on the Syrian civil war in Switzerland started today. In the lead up to the conference, the media focus, unfortunately, had been on which parts of the Syrian opposition would attend and whether or not Iran, the Assad regime’s close ally, would attend (the U.S. pressured the UN to uninvite<\/em> Iran at the last minute for not accepting the Geneva Communique).<\/p>\n And today, the media focused on two developments: (1) Secretary of State John Kerry’s hardline rhetoric about the Syrian regime’s crimes and how Assad cannot be a part of any transition government, and (2) the tense back-and-forth<\/a> between UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and Syrian Foreign Minister\u00a0Walid al-Moualem, the latter being nothing more than a disagreement over how much time the foreign minister should have to speak.<\/p>\n From where I’m sitting, the real story of the Geneva II conference was all but ignored. It was summed up by Ban Ki-Moon in a press conference following the talks when he said<\/a>, “all of the countries who have been providing arms to either side must stop and encourage them to engage in political dialogue.”<\/p>\n This opinion, which Moon has repeatedly expressed, echoes that of countless other experts. Back in 2012,\u00a0UN rights chief Navi Pillay condemned<\/a>\u00a0the continued flow of weapons from foreign powers to both sides in the Syrian conflict. \u201cThe ongoing provision of arms to the Syrian government and to its opponents feeds additional violence,\u201d she said in the text of remarks made to the Security Council.<\/p>\n James Dobbins, director of the\u00a0RAND<\/a>\u00a0a former US assistant secretary of state\u00a0told NPR recently<\/a>, \u201cthe external environment in which sides are providing arms to both of the contending parties\u2014all of that suggests that the situation\u2019s going to continue to deteriorate.\u201d<\/p>\n When both sides to a civil war are emboldened by their foreign benefactors, neither feels vulnerable enough to compromise. This virtually ensures perpetual stalemate.<\/p>\n