French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, here with more than a dozen of his counterparts for the previously scheduled Saturday meeting, said that “it is more necessary than ever in the current circumstance to coordinate the global fight against terrorism”.
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Representatives from 16 countries plus the U, European Union and Arab League have gathered in Vienna for a second round of talks on establishing a framework for a political resolution to Syria’s prolonged and costly civil war.
The proposal, which appears to draw heavily from a Russian peace plan circulated before the talks, sets January 1 as a deadline for the start of negotiations between Bashar al-Assad’s government and opposition groups. Kerry says once an agreement on a transitional government is reached, a new constitution would be drafted within 6 months and free and fair elections would be held within 18 months.
But Mr Cameron will be joined by other leaders already engaged in the struggle against IS – also known as Isis, Isil or Daesh – including U.S. president Barack Obama, whose air force has been conducting strikes against the group in Syria and Iraq, and on Saturday targeted an Islamic State leader in Libya.
Lavrov said that Russian Federation and the USA, which are both conducting bombing campaigns in Syria against Islamic State, would discuss possible additions to the list of terrorist groups at a later time, state news agency TASS reported.
“The Syrian future will be decided by the Syrian people overall”, said Lavrov.
Hosted by the United States, the talks in the Austrian capital will bring together Western nations including the UK – represented by Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond – with ministers from Russian Federation and regional powers Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Kerry earlier said that the attacks were an “assault on our common humanity”, and promised that the violence had strengthened the group’s resolve to find solutions to end Syria’s war. “We have repeatedly invited them to a particular conversation, with specific cards for specific purposes, marked on these maps, asked our colleagues to express concerns and to explain what we are doing wrong”, Lavrov said.
A Syrian woman said that a ceasefire was an absolute priority.
Iran is a key backer of the Assad regime and has intervened militarily in Syria to prop up the country’s president.
The Paris assaults were compared by the Syrian leader to occasions saying that terrorism has been weathered by his nation through the civil war which has killed more than 250,000 individuals.
Turkey, which has a 500-mile border with Syria, has granted the US-led coalition access to its air bases to launch strikes against IS.
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In a decision apparently prompted by the Paris attacks, the participants also chose the French capital for their next meeting before year’s end to go over progress made toward the cease fire and the selection of delegations for the political talks. This has triggered Europe’s worst refugee crisis since World War II.
