The U.S. and Russian Federation said they made progress toward a new cease-fire in Syria’s civil war but had no breakthroughs after nine hours of talks in Geneva, underscoring the deep differences that remain in bringing a lasting settlement to the country’s bloody conflict.
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Kerry said that Syrians benefited from the calm following the February accord, but that the gains were lost again when violations of the agreement began.
The inability to achieve a deal between the U.S. and Russian Federation virtually brings another missed deadline for the UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura to get the Syrian government and “moderate” militants back to the negotiating table. 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.
Kerry said neither Washington or Moscow is deceived by the name change. Kerry says experts will remain in Geneva with an eye toward finalizing the unresolved steps in the coming days. Following talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva, Kerry said there are still “a few narrow issues to be resolved” before a lasting accord can be reached. Kerry asserted that they had held a new round of negotiations on technical issues for the ceasefire to become a reality, to improve the level of humanitarian aid supply and the sides in Syria find a way to put an end to the war.
“Today I can say that we achieved clarity on the path forward” for a revamped cessation of hostilities, the top United States diplomat said.
De Mistura has been trying to bring government and opposition representatives back to the negotiating table this month to revive a shattered broader ceasefire. Just last week the USA had to call for Russian help when Syrian warplanes struck in an area not far from where US troops were operating on the ground. The Russian Defense Ministry wants “to prevent air incidents because it will be the first time when Turkish warplanes will intensively bomb targets in Syria and may meet Russian warplanes in midair”, a ministry official said, according to the newspaper Izvestia.
The U.S. military scrambled jets last week to protect U.S. Special Operations forces in response to a Syrian bombing run near where they were operating. Recent developments include military operations around the city of Aleppo, the entry of Turkey into the ground war, Turkish hostility toward USA -backed Kurdish rebel groups and the presence of American military advisers in widening conflict zones.
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He said that Aleppo continues to be besieged and bombarded by the regime and its allies and the regime has today forced the surrender of Daraya after a brutal four years of the siege and continues to take territory in the Damascus suburbs.
