The so-called International Syria Support Group, or ISSG, also hopes to submit a resolution to be endorsed by the U.N. Security Council.
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Iran has made a decision to unify its stance with Russia’s in the push for a political deal to end Syria’s civil war, Iranian officials said, in a sign it could ease its opposition to the departure of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as part of the agreement.
FILE – Secretary of State John Kerry is escorted by Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif ‘s chief of staff before a meeting with the foreign minister at the Hotel Bristol in Vienna, Austria, Oct. 29, 2015.
The resolution has been described as a rare gesture of unity on the Syria peace process by a council often deeply divided on the crisis, which is deep into its fifth year with well over 300,000 killed.
Within six months, the process should establish “credible, inclusive and non-sectarian governance”, and set a schedule for drafting a new constitution.
Judeh also said “the talks are going very, very well”. At the same time, diplomats worked to overcome divisions on the text of the resolution.
The resolution calls the transition Syrian-led and Syrian-owned, stressing that the “Syrian people will decide the future of Syria”.
The US and Russian initiative, which emerged from talks with a 17-nation group, foresees a rapid ceasefire in the nearly five-year-old conflict, perhaps as early as next month.
Diplomats close to the talks said Friday that there is heated discussion among the nations in the meeting about the list of groups that will be considered terrorist groups and unable to take part in talks.
Russia-U.S. relations have hit a particularly low point during the Obama administration, with the Kremlin persistently alleging that Washington’s pressure on Moscow over human rights and the sanctions imposed over Crimea and the conflict in eastern Ukraine are a cover for fomenting unrest aimed at driving Putin out of office.
A group of countries will join Jordan in developing that list, Kerry told reporters, without giving details. Syria’s main opposition group said a January 1 deadline for starting peace talks was “too ambitious”.
“Stopping the mass murder is a good place to start”, he said.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the two most important issues are launching political negotiations among Syrian parties and implementing a U.N.-monitored cease-fire.
“The goal there is to continue to try to better define what we think the political transition and the process itself should look like; to try to put more fidelity on the notion of a cease-fire”, said State Department spokesperson John Kirby.
The four-page draft, seen by Reuters, backs a nationwide ceasefire in Syria to come into effect “as soon as the representatives of the Syrian government and the opposition have begun initial steps towards a political transition under United Nations auspices”.
Friday’s talks follow a meeting last week in Saudi Arabia in which Syrian opposition groups agreed to unite to negotiate with the regime on a ceasefire. It also endorsed the continued battle to defeat Islamic State in Iraq and Syria militants who have seized large swaths of both Syria and neighboring Iraq.
If the plan brings Bashar al-Assad’s government to the table with the armed opposition, it will allow Russian and US-led forces to focus their firepower on the Islamic State group.
A new body includes representatives of fighting groups such as the powerful Islamist Ahrar al-Sham and Free Syrian Army units that have received military support from states such as Saudi Arabia and the United States.
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Associated Press writer Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed.
