There is something almost surreal about the setting for the Syrian peace talks taking place in Switzerland this week. Montreux is breathtakingly beautiful, the snow-topped Swiss Alps rising starkly over Lake Geneva. Yet this is where world leaders are to decide the fate of Syria and to try and end the brutal war which has […]
The conflict in Syria is close to entering its fourth year. Ordinary Syrians are the victims of this humanitarian catastrophe – deliberately targeted by those fighting, their cities destroyed, often deprived of food and water, millions have been forced to flee for their lives. A conflict that began in the political turmoil of the Arab […]
After months of postponements, the long-awaited Geneva II Conference to find a political solution to the crisis in Syria began yesterday in Montreux, Swtizerland. At the end of the first day of the conference, Oxfam’s Humanitarian Policy Advisor Shaheen Chughtai gave a wrap up of progress so far. It took a monumental diplomatic effort […]
Oxfam campaigners are amongst the hundreds of diplomats, journalists, civil society and solidarity groups gathering for the beginning of the long awaited ‘Geneva 2’ peace talks for Syria in the tranquil town of Montreaux, on Lake Geneva in Switzerland. Police are patrolling the edges of a security fence which rings the buildings where the talks […]