DEARBORN — The Syrian civil war has claimed more than 130,000 lives, displaced millions and fueled sectarianism in Syria, neighboring countries and across the Middle East. But as representatives from the country’s government and opposition meet in Switzerland among a host of international foreign ministers, local Syrian Americans have little hope that the negotiations will end the war, which has been raging for almost three years.  

The Geneva 2 international peace conference convened in the lakeside Swiss city of Montreux on Wednesday Jan. 22, after preconditions and disagreements over Iran’s attendance threatened its fate until the last day.

Ali Karkali, a Syrian American medical student at Wayne State University, told The Arab American News he is not optimistic about the outcome of the peace conference.

“I don’t expect anything from this conference,” he said.

Karkali, who advocates Assad’s ouster, said the West has been reexamining its position and shifting toward the regime’s narrative. 

“There is more cooperation with the Assad regime,” he said, pointing to last year’s chemical arms deal between the United States and Syria. “It scares me that now they see him as the lesser of two evils. The U.S. is focused now on fighting terrorists, not acknowledging that terrorists came to Syria to fill the vacuum created by the regime.”

Karkali said the negotiations will be between the West and the regime and its backers in order to reflect the regional geopolitical changes including the American rapprochement with Iran.

“It will not be an effort for reconciliation among Syrians,” he stated. “The coalition’s attendance is only to legitimize the talks.”

A recent pro-Syrian regime rally was held locally.

Karkali added that even if a solution is reached in Geneva, it will be impossible to implement on the ground because many armed opposition factions have already declared that they will not abide by any political agreement reached.

“I don’t think Assad can be held to an agreement, either,” he added. “Recently, it was agreed that if the FSA raises the Syrian regime flag in Mo’damiyeh, a Damascus suburb, the army would break the siege and let food and medicine into the city. The flag was raised and FSA fighters turned themselves in, but the siege was not broken.”

Despite his pessimism about Geneva 2’s chances of success, Karkali said he hopes the peace conference leads to a ceasefire to ease the humanitarian crisis.

“The priority now is the humanitarian effort and finding solutions to the refugee problem,” he said.

At right: Anti-Syrian regime protests were also held recently in the area.

President Bashar al-Assad’s role in the transitional government that is supposed to put an end to the war remains a major sticking point between the Syrian and international sides at the conference. Uncompromising speeches from Syrian foreign minister Walid al-Moallem and Ahmad al-Jarba, the head of the Syrian Opposition Coalition, set the tone for the first day of the talks.

Taghrid Atat, a Syrian American entrepreneur who resides in Dearborn Heights, said Geneva 2 will help reshape state alliances in the Middle East.

“We are now facing operations of dismantling, re-assembling and creating new alliances and balances of power in the region,” she said.

Atat added that Iran, and to a lesser degree Syria, Iraq and Hezbollah, will be the center of power in the new regional regime engineered by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (R) and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (L) attend the opening speech of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (C) during the Geneva-2 peace talks in Montreux January 22, 2014. Syria’s government and opposition, meeting for the first time, angrily spelled out their mutual hostility on Wednesday at a U.N. peace conference where world powers also offered sharply divergent views on forcing out Bashar al-Assad. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

Atat said Saudi Arabia will not be a principal player in the new system because it has put its money on the wrong horse, referring to the Syrian opposition. 

However, Ziad Abu Fadel, a Dearborn-based attorney who runs Syrian Perspectives, a blog on the war in Syria, says there is no U.S.-Russian agreement about the situation in Syria. 

Abu Fadel said after the American failure to topple the regimethrough supporting “terrorist groups,” the U.S. is pursuing a media-based and diplomatic war against the Syrian government. 

Abu Fadel said the convention will have “zero impact” on the ground.

“The exiled opposition has no control over Islamist rebels,” he said. “The opposition will play out in pursuing the Saudi and American program to demand Assad to step down.”

The Syrian American attorney said the presidential election, which is scheduled for this year, will ease the political crisis and put Syria on the path to representative democracy. 

He said Assad has declared that he will run for president, and it is up for the opposition to hand a list of candidates and participate in the political process.

Abu Fadel added that “the military solution” is the only way to end the civil war.

“There is no way but to crush these Islamist, terrorist, cannibalistic, sectarian groups,” he said, referring to the armed rebels. “I want to tell the Syrian people not to worry because the Syrian army is very strong and loyal and will soon completely get rid of these animals.”