Epstein Secrets

Syria Lakhdar Brahimi has privately and publicly lobbied Western and Arab countries to allow Iran into the Geneva process. While Secretary of State John Kerry has said that Tehran could play some role in settling the Syria crisis, it is unrealistic to expect Iran's leaders to be a positive force when they

the Geneva process. While Secretary of State John Kerry has said that Tehran could play some role in set

Whatever the case, the attempt to include Iran in the talks should come as no surprise -- for months, UN Special Representative for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi has privately and publicly lobbied Western and Arab countries to allow Iran into the Geneva process. While Secretary of State John Kerry has said t

ople must starve until, possibly, a caravan of options arrives. "He has asked all of us to think about various options that may or may not exist," John Kerry said while in Beijing. One can only imagine the profound effect this has had in Damascus, where Assad's inner circle must be spending sleepless nig

and political support to President Bashar al-Assad. "They're, in fact, enabling Assad to double down, which is creating an enormous problem," Mr. Kerry said in Jakarta, Indonesia, before he flew EFTA00684588 here to confer with top officials of the United Arab Emirates, a gulf state that has been

. (Assad even seized the assets of the opposition's negotiators while they were in Geneva and declared some of those negotiators to be terrorists.) Brahimi thought, as few leaders do, of actual Syrians. "I am ev ry, ev ry sorry, and I apologize to the Syrian mule," he movingly said. Brahimi had done h

bama, with some back and forth, delivered. But the price was high and opportunities lost. "The Dispensable Nation" constitutes important reading as John Kerry moves into his new job as secretary of state. It nails the drift away from the art of diplomacy — with its painful give-and- take — toward a U.S. fo

s by President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry to the Middle East, there are renewed hopes for

ncluding two missions led by Kofi Annan and Lakhdar Brahimi, two diplomats of the highest standing. Thanks to inside knowledge, we can report that Brahimi has offered the fairest and the most realistic compromise formula. More recently, Moaz Al-Khatib, the nominal head of the Syrian opposition, has go