Speaking after meeting Lavrov, Kerry declined to say whether the NY negotiations would go ahead on Friday. Who leads Syria is a matter for Syrians themselves to decide, though the USA has accused Russian Federation of interfering in that process by launching airstrikes against Syrian rebels while pretending to hit ISIS positions.
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“And I’m pleased to say he took that under advisement”, Kerry said.
The world is better off when Russian Federation and the US work together, he added, calling Obama and Putin’s current cooperation a “sign of maturity”. “They are the worst of terrorists”.
British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, second right, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, right, and European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, left, talk to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as the wait for Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, not pictured, for a group picture at the Vienna International Center in Vienna, Austria. It also complained that the US was unwilling to engage in “full-fledged coordination” between the two powers’ militaries while both are conducting airstrikes in Syria.
Kerry said that he hoped to address the crises both in Syria and in Ukraine, where Washington accuses Moscow of backing separatist rebels and has imposed sanctions on Russian Federation.
Assad’s future and his potential role in the political transition will be prime topics of Kerry’s conversations with Putin and Lavrov.
Russian President Vladimir Putin called the shooting a “stab in the back” from “accomplices of terrorists” in his initial reaction to the incident.
On Tuesday, Kerry stated after meeting with Putin in Moscow, that the United States and its partners were not trying to replace the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
President Barack Obama first called on Assad to leave power in the summer of 2011, with “Assad must go” being a consistent rallying cry. However, he described the Syrian opposition’s demand that Assad must leave as soon as peace talks begin as a “nonstarting position, obviously”. But the cease-fire has become increasingly strained.
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“Of course, we would like to continue the dialogue … on how the United States can assist with the Ukrainian settlement”, he said.
