"In Syria, the joke’s on Washington"

[uawchild]

2. The internal factions and their proxy backers.

The Syrian government, the Syrian Free Army, any civil Sunni Syrian leadership opposed to Assad (certainly that must exist, right?), representatives of the Christian and other religious minorities -- these would be the internal factions that would have to be included at the very least.

Then the outside BACKERS of these factions that have been supplying arms and money, namely, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the US, Russia and Iran at the minimum.

As for ISIS, well, they are more than a terrorist group and more accurately a rogue proto-state -- whether they can be brought into a peace process and their behavior modified to within acceptable norms remains an open question. The old saying is that you don't make peace with your friends, you make peace with your enemies, but ISIS might not be reachable.

Nevertheless, all the non-ISIS factions should be engaged in a peace process at the minimum.