The State Department said their talks would focus on “reducing violence, expanding humanitarian assistance for the Syrian people and moving towards a political solution needed to end the civil war”.
Advertisement
The fighting is preventing humanitarian aid from getting into the city, which used to be Syria’s commercial capital.
The US Secretary of State John Kerry is meeting Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov today (Friday) in Geneva to discuss a possible Syrian ceasefire deal.
Lavrov and Kerry spoke by phone earlier that day, Toner said. Even after the US denied any such agreement, Russian Federation insisted the meeting was still on track and Lavrov traveled from Moscow for it.
What led to the sudden about-face remains unclear but Kerry and Lavrov have spoken four times in two days to try to reach an understanding on how to stop the violence in Syria. “Once we feel like we’re closer to a settlement and a meeting would be valuable, then we’ll have that meeting”. Amid the chaos of fighting between Syria’s Russian-backed government and US -supported rebels, the Islamic State group has emerged as a global terror threat.
The civil war in Syria has killed more than 280,000 people and sent millions fleeing to neighboring countries and Europe.
United States officials said on Wednesday the last differences to be resolved included delineating territory between Jabhat Fateh al-Sham formerly the Nusra front, a former al-Qaida affiliate – which both Moscow and Washington agree is a terrorist organisation and a legitimate target – and other opposition groups, on which they differ. “But I think it’s fair to say China, Russia and the United States, everybody shares concerns about it”, he said.
The second US official stressed that any agreement with Russian Federation would have to include an end to the siege by government forces around Aleppo, Syria’s second city.
U.S. National Intelligence Director James Clapper has been another vocal opponent of any enhanced U.S.
The Office of Website Management, Bureau of Public Affairs, manages this site as a portal for information from the U.S. State Department.External links to other Internet sites should not be construed as an endorsement of the views or privacy policies contained therein.
Advertisement
While details are still being worked out, Russia’s position is that the September 8-9 meeting has been agreed on, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters in Moscow Thursday. As recently as Wednesday, a Russian fighter jet flew within 10 feet of a U.S Navy reconnaissance plane over the Black Sea – an incident the Americans described as “unsafe and unprofessional”. “We’re just not there yet”.
