Why Washington and Moscow want a backroom deal over Syria | Simon Tisdall http://gu.com/p/38k5e/tw via @guardian
5:18 AM - 29 Jun 12 via Tweet Button · Details
Why Washington and Moscow want a backroom deal over Syria
The scene is set for a Clinton-Lavrov meeting that could still ring the death knell for the Assad regime
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As Assad loses ground to the opposition, Russia's interests in Syria appear increasingly threatened. Photograph: EPA
Months of futile diplomatic tussling, UN deadlock and finger-pointing overSyria have boiled down to a dramatic, last-ditch effort this weekend to cut a deal between the US and Russia that eases President Bashar al-Assadfrom office and replaces him with an inclusive, transitional government that can halt the spiral towards all-out civil war.
Barack Obama's administration first floated the idea of ditching Assad while simultaneously guaranteeing Russia's interests in Syria more than a month ago. Despite Moscow's rebuffs, the White House has kept at it. Obama spent two hours discussing Syria with a sceptical Vladimir Putin, Russia's president, at this month's G20 summit in Mexico.
US officials did not pretend Putin was won over. But they did claim headway in identifying areas where US and Russian interests coincide, principally preventing a chaotic implosion and a regional war. "We agreed that we need to see a cessation of violence, that a political process has to be created to prevent civil war," Obama said. "We have found many common points on this issue," said Putin.
After follow-up meetings, Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state, and Sergei Lavrov, Putin's foreign minister, have agreed to attend an international summit on expediting Syria's political transition to be convened in Geneva on Saturday by the UN envoy, Kofi Annan. Clinton and Lavrov will meet privately beforehand in St Petersburg on Friday.
