The closed-door talks in Geneva were the first face-to-face meeting between high-level US and Russian military officials over Syria since Russia began bombing there in the fall on behalf of President Bashar Assad.
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The UN Security Council on Friday shelved Russia’s proposal against the idea of sending ground forces to Syria, as global efforts to bring peace to the war-ridden country have stumbled.
“US Secretary of State John Kerry said that his team was “in near-constant discussions” with the Russians”, on Saturday.
Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Jubeir meanwhile raised the prospect that Syrian rebels could be supplied with surface-to-air missiles, though he said it was not a decision Riyadh would take alone.
The 17-nation International Syria Support Group agreed to form a Syria cease-fire task force under the auspices of the U.N. during a meeting in Munich on February 12.
In comments to Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet, U.N. Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, said the Syria talks won’t resume in Geneva on Thursday as he had previously hoped.
The statement from HNC spokesman Salem Al Meslet accused Syria and Russian Federation of showing “disdain for the global community and disregard for the lives of Syrians”.
The Syrian opposition and its backers accuse Moscow of focusing on moderate and Islamist rebels rather than jihadists such as IS.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said his country wants to coordinate its air campaign with the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State.
The Syrian civil war, which will enter its sixth year next month, has left more than 250,000 victims dead and made the country the world’s single largest source of refugees and displaced persons, according to United Nations figures.
And Kurdish news agency Anha reported that “dozens” of Turkish military vehicles had crossed the border and started building a trench about 200 metres inside Syrian territory.
Moscow expressed “regret” that the resolution had been rejected, and said it was “concerned at the growing tension at the Syrian-Turkish border”. It strongly condemned cross-border shelling into Syria and what Russian Federation says is an unrestricted flow of “terrorist” fighters and illegal weapons shipments into the country.
Ankara fears the SDF advance in Aleppo province is meant to connect Kurdish-held areas in northern and northeastern Syria, creating an autonomous Kurdish region along much of its southern border.
Russia’s aerospace forces launched pinpoint strikes against the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra targets in Syria on September 30 after the Federation Council upper parliament house unanimously approved President Vladimir Putin’s request for the use of the armed forces against terrorists in Syria. It has also threatened ground action, saying it was exercising its right to self-defense and responding to fire from Syrian soil.
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He reiterated that “Turkey will not be going into Syria with the boots on the ground if it is not a collective action, either by the Security Council or by the global coalition that we are a part of”.
