US Secretary of State John Kerry speaks during a press conference following a meeting with foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) on August 3, 2015 in Doha. De Mistura noted that the talks between Lavrov and Kerry will undoubtedly influence United Nations initiatives, which proposes humanitarian pauses of 48 hours, such as those of a few days ago in the Syrian region of Aleppo, where the army is fighting against IS members.
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Kerry first made the truce and coordination proposal during a visit to Moscow last month.
Over the summer, de Mistura said he hoped to resume “toward the end of August” the intra-Syria talks that he suspended in late April, after failing to make concrete progress toward his ultimate aim: political transition in Syria.
“For the Russians, Assad is part of the solution – that’s a fundamental difference between the two sides”, said Derek Chollet, a senior adviser at the German Marshall Fund and a former member of the Obama administration.
Kerry said earlier this week the talks were nearing an end, with technical teams still meeting. Russia, on the other hand, says the U.S.is looking to block strikes on terrorist groups out of concern that the rebels it supports would be hit.
The main issue on the agenda is establishing coordination between Russian Federation and the USA in fighting terrorists in Syria.
The top United States and Russian diplomats make clear they have yet to overcome differences on a Syrian ceasefire plan, but both Kerry and Lavrov say a solution is very near.
The talks have been complicated in part by a significant offensive in the southern part of the divided city of Aleppo led by some USA -backed opposition groups that are intermingled with the group formerly known as al-Nusra, an al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria that is also involved in the fight against President Bashar al-Assad. The talks take place just days after Syrian rebels backed by Turkish special forces, tanks and warplanes entered Jarablus, one of Islamic State’s last strongholds on the Turkish-Syrian border.
They note weekly pauses also would allow technicians to fix an electrical plant in southern Aleppo that serves 1.8 million people and a pumping station that provides water to east and west Aleppo.
“And we certainly would welcome the Russians and others engaging constructively in that process”, he added. Hundreds of thousands of civilians remain cut off from relief. “But we are not going to rush to an agreement until it satisfies fully the needs of the Syrian people”.
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The statement came amid reports that rebel forces that have occupied the Damascus suburb of Darayya for four years have agreed to leave the town in exchange for evacuation of 8,000 remaining residents. Lavrov said “once and for all” the groups that were part of a cessation of hostilities agreement had to be delineated.
