Talking Peace: This week in global diplomatic negotiations

Weeks of NSA spying revelations have put pressure on US diplomatic relations with its allies, so it is no surprise that Secretary of State John Kerry this week set out to ease some of the tension. Kerry has been visiting a number of countries in the Middle East and Europe after acknowledging that US surveillance may have gone too far. One country not on the itinerary is Brazil, whose president recently canceled diplomatic visits to Washington and condemned the US at the UN General Assembly.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, however, may now be in a slightly awkward position after Brazilian officials this week confirmed a Sao Paulo newspaper report that the country's intelligence agency had also spied on the US, Russia, Iran and Iraq.

Syria peace negotiations, set to take place this month, have been delayed, and in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the M23 has declared it will set down its arms and engage in political talks with the government.

Here’s what to keep an eye on:

THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO

The Democratic Republic of Congo’s rebel group, M23, announced on Tuesday that it would end its almost two-year battle against UN-backed government forces, after the army captured its final hilltop stronghold.

The group will “pursue political talks” to end the two-decades of violence, giving new hope for peace, Reuters reported.

"The chief of staff and the commanders of all major units are requested to prepare troops for disarmament, demobilization and reintegration on terms to be agreed with the government of Congo," Bertrand Bisimwa, an M23 leader, said in a statement.

While dozens of rebel groups apart from M23 remain active, the US and UN have welcomed the statement as a “significant positive step,” that will aid in easing violence in the series of rebellions for control of the region’s resources that have killed millions of people since the 1990s.

The United Nations had deployed an Intervention Brigade earlier this year to help contain rebel violence.

Referring to previously broken peace accords, Reuters said the “real test will be whether government and rebels can reach a lasting political deal.”

SYRIA

A peace conference on Syria, which was expected to be held in Geneva this month, has been postponed, UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said yesterday.

Brahimi said he has been expecting a delay for weeks, but will continue “striving” for a summit by the year’s end. He was, however, unable to declare an official date after a day of meetings with senior diplomats, and plans to meet with US and Russian officials again on November 25.

"We were hoping that we'd be in a position to announce a date today, unfortunately we're not," he told reporters.

Disagreements over who should attend the peace conference, and what should be on the agenda, have made it difficult for diplomats to schedule a meeting in the last couple of months since the UN Security Council passed a binding resolution on Syrian chemical weapons in September.

Meanwhile, the situation continues to worsen, with 6,000 people leaving Syria daily.

UNITED STATES

Secretary of State John Kerry embarked on a “damage-control mission” to Europe and the Middle East this week, amidst ongoing revelations and heightened tensions surrounding the reach of US surveillance measures, and US diplomatic strategies in Egypt, Syria and Iran.

Kerry, who, in talking about the surveillance, recently admitted that “in some cases” the program has “reached too far,” has been and will be visiting Saudi Arabia, Poland, Israel and the Palestinian territories, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria and Morocco.

The Secretary was expected to have difficult visits in Saudi Arabia and Israel, where strains intensify over US nuclear negotiations with Iran. The department also anticipates difficulty in Poland, where NSA spying on Europe may come up.

Kerry arrived in Israel yesterday hoping to make progress in the three month-old peace talks, which are set to end in April. While in Saudi Arabia earlier this week, he dispelled rumors that the US was attempting to strike a final peace deal negotiated directly by the parties, saying he was simply looking to talk about it.

“The only plan we have at this point in time is to pursue that discussion,” he said. “So it is just incorrect. There is no other plan at this point in time.”

Also in Saudi Arabia on Monday, Kerry said he was determined to “make certain the Saudi-US relationship is on track” as rumors persisted that President Obama’s 15-minute phone call with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, as well as disagreements over Egypt and Syria, had done serious damage to the 80-year old alliance.