Kerry also met with high-ranking Saudi officials including Adel Al-Jubeir, foreign minister, exchanging views on key regional issues including Syria, Israel-Palestine conflict and Iran.
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US Secretary of State John Kerry and King Salman of Saudi Arabia on Saturday called for greater global efforts to restore stability to Syria without Assad at its helm.
“About the only thing that is clear about Syria right now is that the U.S. has comprehensively lost the initiative and is floundering in the face of Russia’s new more intervensionist policy”, Grossman told Press TV on Sunday.
Kerry was in Riyadh for meetings with the Saudi monarch, crown prince, deputy crown prince and foreign minister – the last stop in a trip that also included Vienna, where he met counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Russian Federation.
At a news conference in Cairo with Egypt’s Sameh Shoukry, Jubeir said: “I believe that there has been a few progress and positions have moved closer on finding a solution to the Syrian crisis, but I can not say that we have reached an agreement”.
Moscow says Assad must be part of any political transition and that the Syrian people will decide who rules them. Those offensives are backed by Lebanese Hezbollah and Iranian fighters as well as Russian air strikes.
Syria’s crisis “was deliberately contrived by the United States and its allies for reasons which have little if anything to do with Bashar Assad”, he added.
Rebels have appealed for more military support from foreign backers, including Saudi Arabia, to confront major Syrian army offensives.
Speaking in Amman after meeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan’s King Abdallah, Kerry said Israel had given assurances it had no intention of changing the status quo at the site.
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Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir said on Sunday both Cairo and Riyadh have a “similar” stance on Syria during his visit to Egypt, Al Arabiya News Channel reported.
