U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, will try to hammer out final details of a cooperation agreement on fighting Islamic State in Syria during talks in Geneva on Friday.
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the talks on Syria with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry were “excellent” as they took a lunchtime break from meetings in Geneva as part of a new U.S. effort to enlist Russia as a partner in Syria as fighting becomes more volatile and complicated with the introduction of Turkish ground forces.
After the talks, Kerry said he and Lavrov had agreed on the “vast majority” of technical steps to reinstate the ceasefire and improve humanitarian access.
When Kerry launched the Syrian cooperation talks in July on a visit to Moscow, the proposal involved Washington and Moscow sharing intelligence to coordinate air strikes against Islamic State and grounding the Syrian air force to stop it from attacking moderate rebel groups.
Asked to describe the main impediment to a nationwide ceasefire in Syria as he sat down with Kerry, Lavrov said: “I don’t want to spoil the atmosphere for the negotiations”.
The chief point of contention between the United States and Russian Federation and in the war at large – Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad’s future in power – was not discussed, though on Friday, Kerry again accused the Assad’s government of continuing to bombard rebel-held civilian neighborhoods with barrel bombs and chlorine gas.
“We are close [to a ceasefire]”, Kerry attempted to reassure observers, according to the Guardian. “The mutual trust is growing with every meeting”. After missing an initial target date of Aug. 1, de Mistura had hoped to restart the intra-Syrian discussions toward political transition in late August.
The newspaper noted: “it was clear that neither side believed an overall agreement was imminent or even achievable after numerous previous disappointments shattered a brief period of relative calm earlier this year”.
“We want to have something done that is effective and that works for the people of Syria, that makes the region more stable and secure, and that brings us to the table here in Geneva to find a political solution”, he said.
John Kerry has said any deal between Russian Federation and the United States on Syria must achieve lasting stability in the region.
The talks came as opposition groups effectively surrendered the Damascus suburb of Daraya to the government after a gruelling four-year siege.
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But the United Nations was not consulted on the plan and U.N. Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura and U.N. humanitarian coordinator Stephen O’Brien, voiced deep concern about it on Friday. He said the Russian military’s reconciliation center in Syria has received a request from another area to organize a similar operation – with Russian mediation.
