What can we learn from Homs?
Given the collapse of the Geneva process, and the Syrian government’s staying power, localized cease-fires may be the latest trend in the conflict.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told Julian Pecquet this week that the negotiated exit by rebel forces from the Old City of Homs, which had been under siege by Syrian government forces, was a "huge victory" for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
That is one way to see it. Other ways might be as a victory for the people of Homs, who finally got some relief from a brutal siege, and as a possible model of the incremental, painstaking and localized diplomacy required to bring relief to Syrians in war zones, especially given the collapse of the Geneva process.
In Syria, we are dealing with a conflict where 150,000 are estimated to have been killed, 2.8 million are refugees, 6.5 million are displaced, 3.5 million live in areas where aid is blocked or hindered and 240,000 live under siege.
So if we are keeping score on the humanitarian front, some of those numbers went down a tiny bit in Homs, thanks to intensive diplomacy involving UN and Syrian officials, opposition leaders and Russian and Iranian diplomats.
