Hadi Mohammadi, expert on strategic issues, in an interview with Taqrib News Agency (TNA) detailed his views on Geneva peace talks said although US Secretary of State’s John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov are scheduled to discuss the continuation of talks and agree on general issues, any turnabout change is unlikely to happen.
 
Q: To what extent have the current Geneva peace talks on Syria advanced and what objectives have been achieved so far?
 
A: This round of talks, whose second meeting between Syrian government and the opposition side has been held in Geneva, has witnessed quite a lot of ups and downs.
 
These factors can be categorized as:
 
First: The changed conditions were all filed equations, meaning that, terrorist and armed groups as well as their supporters have found military operations as impossible; hence, they welcomed political negotiations as no other solution was possible.
 
Second: Since the opposition group, due to field equations, participated the talks with empty hands, they could not appear as an active side; therefore, their participation in political negotiations can be taken as a strategic appearance to improve the situation in the battle ground.
 
Third: This factor is arms assistance for the opposite side. Beside their not having a serious military program for Syria, based on a total result of the past 6 months of military operations by Russia, Syria and their allies, they made wide efforts to provide the assailant opposite side with great quantities of weaponries including surface-to-air missiles and these missiles are now at the hands of different groups including Ahrar al Sham, Al Nusra, Jeish al Horr and Jeish al Islam.
 
The total amount for these arms, which is reported to be about 200 containers plus the shipment fare, has been paid by different countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Emirates.
 
These measures were meant to both prevent more failures by armed groups and provide the grounds for influencing the field equations.
 
Q: What stances did the international and regional players follow in an attempt to resolve Syria crisis?
 
A: Since political talks have included strategic participations, we have witnessed utmost and impossible mottos of the terrorist and Takfiri groups in Geneva so that the talks provide a lapse for the groups to be armed with new weaponries. Besides, Americans and Russians reached an agreement that discussions on future of President Assad should not be opened.
 
In the next round that the groups were not completely synced and their allies like Saudi Arabia have maintained a shaky stance, at first they announced that they can form a unified government in alliance with the present government under the condition that Bashar Assad leaves power, a proposal that changed within 48 hours and a new position was taken that the whole system should change. That is proof that the talks are not moving in a balanced and clear path and the opposite side is killing time to facilitate the armed groups with new weapons.
 
In the last political situation, negotiating team from Riyadh has left the talks under the pretext that its demands are not met and this was so clear that even Di Mistura  called the move a diplomatic gesture when Saudi Arabia counted its several demands on freedom of prisoners, lifting the seizure of some areas, guarantees that Bashar al Assad will leave power.
 
Q: What hurdles are ahead of these talks and to what extent can we be hopeful over continuation of talks?
A: Riyadh negotiating team has called for its demands in advance and secured. That is proof that they do not enter talks very seriously besides that the field situation has advanced in a way that the ceasefire has never been taken serious by the terrorist group since the beginning of the agreement.
 
Last week has been witness to worsening of violation of ceasefire and several forces have entered Idlib through Turkish borders with several reports on transportation of arms through different borders to the point that Russia has demanded for UN peacekeepers array in Turkish borders which was immediately rejected by Turkey. There has been great chaos in the field situation where Syrian government has made it to make advancements in Northeastern Damascus and Southwestern or even Northern Aleppo, the clashes between terrorist groups like ISIL with its peers including Al Nusra is still continuing in Northern Aleppo.
 
Therefore we can say that new military changes, and not political ones, are expected to happen though we will not witness turnabout changes in peace talks although Kerry and Lavrov have had meetings on continuation of talks and made agreements in this line.