I don't know how much truth there be in Martti Ahtisaari's claim, West 'ignored Russian offer in 2012 to have Syria's Assad step aside' (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/s ... step-aside" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) but if so, what a tragic missed opportunity. I don't see any reason why he would lie, nevertheless it does seem a case of he said, we said; interesting nonetheless even if we shan't know the full story.
“There was no question because I went back and asked him a second time,” he said, noting that Churkin had just returned from a trip to Moscow and there seemed little doubt he was raising the proposal on behalf of the Kremlin.
Ahtisaari said he passed on the message to the American, British and French missions at the UN, but he said: “Nothing happened because I think all these, and many others, were convinced that Assad would be thrown out of office in a few weeks so there was no need to do anything.”