Peace talks on Syria stuck over Assad's future

MONTREUX, Switzerland (AP) - Furiously divided from the start, representatives of Syrian President Bashar Assad and the rebellion against him threatened Wednesday to collapse a peace conference intended to lead them out of civil war.

Assad's future in the country devastated by three years of bloodshed was at the heart of the sparring, which took place against a pristine Alpine backdrop as Syrian forces and rebel fighters clashed across a wide area from Aleppo and Idlib in the north to Daraa in the south.

U.S. and U.N. officials said merely getting the two sides in the same room was something of a victory, but U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon's claim that the discussions were "harmonious and constructive" was at odds with the testy exchange when he tried to get the podium from Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem.

"You live in New York. I live in Syria," Moallem angrily told Ban. "I have the right to give the Syrian version here in this forum. After three years of suffering, this is my right."

With little common ground, the two sides were to meet separately Thursday with a U.N. negotiator, Lakhdar Brahimi, who said he still did not know if they were ready to sit at the same table when talks begin in earnest Friday. But, Brahimi said, both sides had shown some willingness to bend on local cease-fires and delivery of humanitarian aid, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said they were also working on possible terms for a prisoner exchange.

The Western-backed opposition said Assad's departure was their starting point, echoing the position laid out by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

"The resolution cannot be about one man's - or one family's - insistence on clinging to power," Kerry said.

The response from the government delegation was firm and blunt.

"There will be no transfer of power, and President Bashar Assad is staying," Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi told reporters.

UN chief's bungled Iran invitation hurts his role

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Ban Ki-moon made a rare effort at solo diplomacy when he invited Iran to join this week's Syria peace talks, but it backfired, raising questions about the effectiveness of a U.N. secretary-general better known - and often criticized - for his reserved and scripted style.

No one has said publicly what was said during Ban's intense weekend of negotiations with Iran's foreign minister, but Ban's spokesman, Farhan Haq, said the secretary-general had an "oral understanding" with Iran and believed that a "more concrete," written understanding would follow on the terms of its attendance at the peace talks.

Ban told reporters on Wednesday, "Unfortunately, I was not able to get the firm confirmation from the Iranian government at the last minute."

Iran instead declared that it would attend only without preconditions. The whirlwind 24 hours ended up angering all sides, including the United States and Russia, and jeopardized the fragile talks when Syria's opposition threatened to drop out. On Monday, Ban withdrew the invitation.

"Certainly he was misled," a Security Council diplomat said.

Though Ban's office has said he kept the U.S. and other key states informed throughout his talks with Iran, the blame has fallen on him.

The secretary-general's bad week continued Wednesday when the tense talks began in Montreux, Switzerland. Ban repeatedly asked Syria's foreign minister to step away from the podium when he exceeded his time limit.

"You live in New York. I live in Syria," Walid al-Moallem snapped, ignoring the U.N. chief's appeal.