Keaten reported from Geneva.
Advertisement
She said she was optimistic for the talks and noted that “President Obama himself wants the success of these negotiations”.
“They’ve been frustrated for months by the quality of Assad’s leadership, and more recently by his reluctance to participate in the peace process”, William Courtney, a former USA ambassador to Georgia and Kazakhstan, told International Business Times on Tuesday.
But Thursday’s declaration was broadly rejected by those negotiating in Geneva.
He said: “It’s an open secret for us that demonising Russian Federation and whatever is linked to Russian Federation is unfortunately a mandatory hallmark of America’s election campaign”.
The party said the region’s Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen would all be represented, calling it a model for the rest of the country. “The group of Su-24M, Su-25 and Su-34 jets, as Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Aerospace Defense Forces Col. Gen. (Viktor) Bondarev already noted, already returned to aerodromes of permanent deployment on the territory of Russia”, Rudskoy said.
Russian cargo planes and fighter jets leave Hmeymim air base as Russia pulls out its air force from Syria.
Praising Assad for “his restraint, honest desire for peace and for his readiness for compromise and dialogue”, Putin said the Russian demarche had sent a positive signal for all sides taking part in peace talks in Geneva.
Earlier, the opposition said the government is “procrastinating” and not engaging in serious negotiations.
The group also claimed the killing of several members of the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah group in the clashes near Palmyra. He did not elaborate.
United Nations envoy Staffan de Mistura described the withdrawal as a “significant development” for the talks, after the regime and rebel delegations submitted road maps for a political solution. “Outside of this, unilateral decisions can not have validity”, a Turkish foreign ministry official said.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government practice.
But the State Department only responded to the Kurdish initiative after the event. He says he will not comment on “unilateral statements coming from here and there”.
But Warren said the USA military remains uncertain about Moscow’s plans.
He hailed Washington’s “readiness to coordinate those efforts”.
Putin announced Monday that the main part of his forces would begin withdrawing from Syria, saying that “the task that was assigned to the Ministry of Defense and the armed forces as a whole has achieved its goal”.
Just under half of Russia’s fixed-wing strike force based in Syria has flown out of the country in the past two days, according to a Reuters calculation which suggests the Kremlin is accelerating its partial withdrawal. Putin, in his announcement, said Moscow would maintain an air and naval base.
Russian Federation will also continue to boost the Syrian military with weapons, training and operational guidance, Putin said. Putin may meet with Kerry to discuss coordinating Russian and USA actions to advance the Syrian peace process, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call Wednesday.
Advertisement
Supporters of the so-called moderate Syrian opposition, including Gulf monarchies and Turkey, have supported the ceasefire without enthusiasm.
