Officials said the 17 governments in attendance had been considering a plan that would establish a cease-fire within four to six months, followed by the formation of a transition government featuring both Assad and opposition members.
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In addition to Assad’s fate, on which delegates said no breakthrough had been expected, sticking points have long included the question of which rebel groups should be considered “terrorists” and who should be involved in the political process.
The number of special operations troops was likely to be in the range of 20 to 30, said one USA official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“The president has been quite clear there is no military solution problems that are plaguing Iraq and Syria, there’s a diplomatic one”.
He said the special forces’ mission would be to “train, advise and assist” local groups. But although it has acknowledged conducting special forces raids into Syria in the past, it has not stationed troops there. The USA and its allies claimed they target those opposing Assad, not just the Islamic State group.
“We can’t allow those differences to get in the way of the possibility of diplomacy”, he said.
Sources who described the Iranian proposal said it amounted to Assad’s closest ally dropping its insistence on him remaining in office.
HE the Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Khalid bin Mohamed al-Attiyah participating in a meeting to discuss a political settlement to the Syrian crisis in Vienna yesterday.
Russia, which started bombing a month ago, says it is targeting only Islamic State. However, Tehran may be adjusting its stance in ways that could create more ground for compromise with Western countries.
Iranian Assistant Foreign Minister Hussein Amir Abdullahian dismissed as baseless media reports alleging Tehran has accepted a suggestion on a 6-month transitional process in Syria.
Syria’s main political opposition body and representatives of the armed opposition have not been invited to worldwide talks on the country’s war, an opposition politician and a rebel leader said.
“I am so happy to see you, Nicolas”, Putin said warmly. Underscoring the urgency, Syrian opposition reported that a government missile barrage killed more than 40 in a Damascus suburb. Mr. Assad’s opponents have said that new elections would keep him in power unless more steps to remove him are taken. His government held an election as recently as past year, which he easily won.
The United States has been considering extending support to thousands of Syrian rebel fighters to help them push Islamic State from a strategic pocket of Syrian territory along the Turkish border and advance toward Raqqa, USA officials say.
Russian Federation and Iran are two of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s biggest supporters, and the Obama administration reluctantly agreed to bring the Iranians into the discussions for the first time.
He said the new U.N.-led process should lead to a new constitution for Syria and internationally supervised elections, as well as an end to violence between Assad’s military and rebels so that the world community can focus on the fight against the Islamic State.
The talks include the foreign ministers of Russian Federation and Iran, which support Assad, and nations such as Saudi Arabia and Turkey, which are adamantly opposed to his remaining in power after a civil war that has driven millions overseas as refugees and displaced millions more inside the country.
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A further 80 people were killed in government and Russian air strikes in Aleppo province.
