“Today I can say that we achieved clarity on the path forward”, said Kerry.
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Despite the apparent incremental progress on Aleppo, U.S. officials are keen to broaden the focus and hammer out a diplomatic initiative that would see greater military co-operation with Russian Federation that could lead to a resumption of talks on a political transition.
The United States and Russian Federation are “close” to reaching an agreement to end the war in Syria, with both nations saying they would try and finalise a deal in the coming days. Turkey’s recent decision to intervene militarily in Syria also highlights the nature of the conflict as a proxy war between regional powers.
While Kerry said this week that technical teams from both sides were close to the end of their discussions, US officials indicated it was too early to say whether a deal was likely.
The US Secretary said Russian and American diplomats were planning to meet in Geneva in the coming days to continue hashing out a deal that would hopefully lead to a sustained truce.
That group has renamed itself Fateh Al-Sham Front after renouncing its status as Al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate, but Kerry on Friday stressed that “Nusra is Al-Qaeda, and no name change by Nusra hides what Nusra really is and what it tries to do”.
The two diplomats met on and off for almost 12 hours and were briefly joined by the United Nations envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, who on Thursday voiced hopes the talks would help his drive to revive the stalled negotiations.
“We do not want to make an announcement … that is not enforceable, that doesn’t have details worked out, that winds up in the place that the last two announcements have wound up”, Kerry said.
The US says the fight against IS can’t happen without Assad leaving power.
When Kerry launched the Syrian cooperation talks in July during a visit to Moscow, the proposal involved Washington and Moscow sharing military intelligence to coordinate air strikes against Islamic State and grounding the Syrian air force to stop it from attacking moderate rebel groups.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, center, shakes hand with Syrian President Bashar Assad as Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, right, looks on in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, October 20, 2015.
USA officials say it is imperative that Russian Federation use its influence with Syrian President Bashar Assad to halt all attacks on moderate opposition forces, open humanitarian aid corridors, and concentrate any offensive action on the Islamic State group and other extremists not covered by what has become a largely ignored truce.
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Separately, Syrian rebels and government forces agreed in a deal on Thursday to evacuate all residents and insurgents from the besieged Damascus suburb of Daraya, ending one of the longest standoffs in the five-year conflict.
