In the past few months, peace talks with Syria have been held to no avail. There has been no movement forward or toward an accord that appeases all sides of the equation. The Russians have backed President Assad while the Americans continue to fight for President Assad to be ousted. Recently, Russia has suggested Iran as a possible candidate for joining the peace delegations. The United Nations’ Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, backed this idea. A surprising event occurred when United States Secretary of State John Kerry also proposed Iran to join the talks.

Mr. Kerry’s move to back Iran joining the delegation was seen as a horrible idea. Members of Congress attacked Mr. Kerry for this. Members of the Syrian rebel groups declared that they would not partake in negotiations if Iranians were in attendance. The Iranians themselves never endorsed joining the peace talks, meaning that the idea was completely foreign to them.  The problems in the American government as well as the Iranian nuclear talks, Russian approval of Iran joining the peace talks, and the Syrian rebels denying Iranian participation have all caused great delays to peace talks.

These past few delays in compromise, along with President Assad’s growing military power and the continued fractioning of Syrian rebels have changed the topic of the delegation from removing Assad to an ending of the Civil War as soon as possible. The peace talks have been set for this week and are occurring in Geneva, without Iran.