Laying the groundwork for planned Syrian peace talks, Secretary of State John Kerry is in Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov.
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Kerry’s declarations crystallized the evolution in US policy on Assad over the last several months, as the Islamic State group’s growing influence in the Middle East has taken priority.
“I think the world benefits when powerful nations with a long history with each other have the ability to be able to find the common ground”, Kerry said as he sat down with Lavrov”.
A United States diplomat in Paris, speaking anonymously, said a meeting in Geneva on Friday between Russian and American diplomats on Syria was aimed mainly at clearing up Russian “grievances” ahead of today’s Moscow meeting.
“Later today we will tell President Putin what we have discussed and I hope that your visit will be fruitful”, Lavrov said, after laying out an agenda that included Syria and the Ukraine crisis.
After his lengthy meeting with Lavrov, Kerry took time out for a brief stroll through Moscow’s Stary Arbat pedestrian shopping street, stopping at stores including a Dunkin’ Donuts under a light snow and exchanging greetings with Russians.
Lavrov noted “outstanding issues” with the US on the Syrian political transition that is supposed to bring representatives of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government together with the opposition for negotiations by early January.
The trip is Kerry’s second to Russian Federation this year – he met with Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi in May – but his first since frosty relations over Ukraine were exacerbated by Moscow’s intervention in Syria in late September.
Mr Kerry nonetheless praised Moscow for having been “a significant contributor to the progress that we have been able to make” on Syria and said the USA and Russian Federation are united by the belief that Isis must be eliminated.
Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighters in Western Syria, however, denied that they were receiving any such support, which perhaps is not surprising as some of the FSA factions in the west are allied with al-Qaeda and fighting against the Assad government. The U.S. and its European allies have imposed sanctions on Russian Federation for its continued support for separatists in the east.
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One senior official travelling with Kerry said he would be exploring ways to bridge gaps on both the political transition as well as making the point that Russia’s military operations in Syria need to focus on Isil. That cease-fire has become increasingly strained.
