At that time, successive rounds of negotiations failed, owing to an all-or-nothing mentality, based largely on the mistaken assumption that Assad, like Tunisia's Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali and Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, would be ousted relatively quickly. But de Mistura has made it clear that he aims neither to build a lasting peace with Assad nor to establish Assad's departure from power as a precondition for peace.
但这场冲突的持续解决办法最终还是取决于叙利亚人民，。事实上，形成叙利亚领导的解决办法所需要的基础在2012年的第一次日内瓦协商（Geneva I Communiqué）中就已经建立。当时，连续多伦协商都以失败告终，原因是“要么全有，要么全无”思维，而这又主要是因为错误地认为巴沙尔与土耳其的本·阿里和埃及的穆巴拉克一样，将在相对较短的时间内被推翻。但德米斯图拉明确地表明他的目标不是与巴沙尔保持长期和平，也不把巴沙尔交出权力作为和平的先决条件。他的解决方案介于这两者之间，西方——特别是欧洲——必须接受它。