THE United Nations security council gave unanimous support to a peace process for Syria late on Friday.

 

The proposed process is set to begin next month with government-opposition talks and a ceasefire, representing the strongest UN gesture yet.

 

But the resolution only managed to achieve unanimity by avoiding mention of the most contentious issue — the future of President Bashar al-Assad.

 

US Secretary of State John Kerry loudly rejected the idea that Friday’s vote and discussions had put off tough decisions on that point.

 

Nevertheless, although the US, its European allies, Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations have insisted that Mr Assad must go, Mr Kerry said “everyone” has by now realised that demanding the president’s departure up front in the process was “prolonging the war.”

 

The resolution calls on the UN secretary-general to convene representatives of the Syrian government and opposition “to engage in formal negotiations on a political transition process on an urgent basis, with a target of early January 2016 for the initiation of talks.”

 

But since the government rejects any suggestion that Mr Assad should step aside as a precondition of peace talks and the rebels equally emphatically reject any settlement that does not include the removal of the president, there would appear to be little substance to the resolution — which thus amounts to a pious hope rather than any substantive prospect of progress.

 

Syrian allies Russia and Iran have consistently rejected foreign governments’ calls for the president’s departure.

 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the Syrian people must decide their own future — and “that also covers the future of Syria’s president, and that is our deep conviction.”

 

He told reporters that he was “not too optimistic about what has been achieved today,” but added that “a very important step has been made … for Syrians to determine the future of their country.”

 

However, Syrian ambassador to the UN Bashar Ja’afari criticised the “glaring contradictions” between the talk about letting the Syrian people decide their fate and talking about replacing Mr Assad.