Stubbornness of both the Awami League and the BNP has failed an eight-month-long UN effort to engage them in dialogue to find a solution towards holding a free and fair national election, say political analysts.
Instead of reducing the gap between them, the ruling party and the main opposition have further toughened their stances on the issue of a polls-time government over the last few months.
Against this backdrop, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the two top leaders -- Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia -- on Friday, and urged them to hold talks to find a peaceful solution to the ongoing political crisis.
But the manner in which the two leaders gave their views to the UN chief on the polls-time government indicates that they don't have any intention to change their positions, say political analysts.
Maintaining her stance, Hasina had called upon the opposition to join the next parliament session and place their proposal on the next polls and the polls-time government.
Her archrival Khaleda told the UN chief that her party was ready to hold dialogue and had repeatedly been urging the government to initiate talks.
The UN chief had earlier sent envoys to Dhaka twice since December last year, urging the two parties to sit for talks.
"I still do not see any ray of hope, as the parties are unwilling to sit together. They did not even respond to the UN's previous calls," Akbar Ali Khan, former adviser to a caretaker government, told The Daily Star yesterday.
M Hafizuddin Khan, another ex-adviser to a caretaker government, echoed Akbar's view.
He said he wasn't certain whether the UN would play the same role it did at the end of 2006 and in early 2007.
Hafizuddin said the UN then played an effective role to help the nation overcome the political turmoil centring the parliamentary polls.
The armed forces at that time feared that their involvement in holding a controversial election might have a negative impact on their participation in UN peacekeeping missions.
They forced the then president Iajuddin Ahmed to declare a state of emergency on January 11, 2007, suspending the scheduled polls that the AL-led alliance had decided to boycott.
Meanwhile, talking to reporters yesterday morning, US Ambassador to Bangladesh Dan Mozena said he was very upbeat about the UN chief's conversations with Hasina and Khaleda.
"I think it is a very positive development to see the direct engagement of the UN secretary general reaching out personally to the leaders of the two major parties ... reiterating a very strong and powerful message on the need for a dialogue," Mozena told reporters after an international conference on peacekeeping at Dhaka University.
Ambassadors of other nations have also spoken over the last few months about the issue of holding dialogue between the country's two top leaders.
The UN chief sent a delegation headed by UN Assistant Secretary General Oscar Fernandez-Taranco in the first week of December, 2012 and again in the second week of May this year.
The delegation held extensive meetings with Hasina, Khaleda and civil society members, and called for an amicable solution for holding a free, fair and participatory parliamentary election.
Since then, AL chief Hasina and senior leaders of her party, on several occasions, spoken about holding talks with the BNP, but they didn't make any formal move to hold talks with the main opposition.
On the other hand, Khaleda and her party have been urging the government to restore the non-partisan caretaker government system by bringing amendments to the constitution.
BNP leaders yesterday made it clear once again that they would not place in parliament any proposal on the form of a polls-time government in response to the prime minister's call.
Senior BNP leader Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain termed Hasina's assurance to the UN chief a conspiracy to trap BNP.
During the conversation with Ban Ki-moon on Friday, Hasina told him that she would welcome any proposal from the opposition.
"We do not want to fall in this trap. We have only 30 lawmakers in parliament. If we place any proposal in the House, the treasury bench will reject it in voice vote," Mosharraf said at a rally in the capital.
AL presidium member Nooh-Ul- Alam Lenin told The Daily Star that there was no possibility of holding any talks with the main opposition outside the House.
"We will not go outside the purview of the constitution," he said, referring to a recent decision by the AL Working Committee, the highest policy-making body of the party.
He said if BNP wants, it can discuss any issue in parliament.
"No external mediation yielded any positive result for us in the past. It will not resolve our problems this time either. We ourselves will be able to resolve our problems."
In the meantime, speaking at a meeting in the capital, HM Ershad, chief of Jatiya Party, a component of the AL-led grand alliance, hoped the two leaders would sit immediately, showing respect to the UN chief's call.