The officials said the talks could continue beyond Friday but wouldn’t go on indefinitely.
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Another US official stressed that while Washington has kept its hopes alive regarding the peace deal, its “patience is not infinite”.
“We are seriously concerned and the resolutions of the Security Council must be strictly implemented and we must send this message very strongly”, Lavrov said.
The US and Russian Federation have been struggling to come to terms on a ceasefire between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government and moderate rebels that would expand humanitarian access for hundreds of thousands of Syrians.
Both men will return home later in the day.
Later on Friday, a senior State Department official told CNN that the talks “are making progress”, saying the negotiators were continuing to iron out “technical issues”.
“There’s a risk that we’ll be starving in two weeks”, he said.
Senior Kerry officials said he would not have flown out to the high-level face-to-face talks with Lavrov unless he thought there was a chance of progress.
But the officials tried to temper expectations that Friday’s talks could resolve all of the issues so that a deal could be announced, saying it could take another session. “We can’t guarantee at this point that we are on the cusp of finishing”. This is an iterative process. “We’re just not there yet”.
Kerry and Lavrov in recent weeks have been in talks over a deal to boost US and Russian military cooperation to fight the Islamic State group and other extremists in Syria. On Wednesday, a fresh round of airstrikes there killed at least seven people and injured more than 40 in Aleppo’s al-Sukkari neighborhood, an activist from the Aleppo Media Center told CNN.
Friday’s air raids on the city’s southern edge came after a wave of bombings, including suspected gas attacks, blamed on the government.
Washington and Moscow are joint leaders of the global effort to end the Syrian civil war, and declared a UN-backed ceasefire as far back as February. Russian Federation wants the U.S.to ensure opposition fighters are separated from the terrorist groups.
“Convoys are not rolling at the moment in Syria”, the United Nations humanitarian chief told reporters in Geneva, although an air bridge to the Kurdish-controlled northeastern city of Hasaka has continued operating, and there have been a handful of evacuations from the besieged towns of Foua and Madaya.
North Korea’s continued testing despite sanctions presents a severe challenge to Obama in the final months of his presidency and could become a factor in the US presidential election in November. Russia’s support for Assad, he said, “has made the situation in Syria more risky, more prolonged and more violent”.
Expressing further skepticism, Carter said that while “you’ve got to keep hoping, the experience suggests that we’re not close to that point” where Russian Federation will change its actions.
Kerry and Lavrov have continued to meet, most recently on Sunday and Monday on the sidelines of the G20 in China, where Putin also talked to US President Barack Obama.
Previously, officials suggested Kerry wouldn’t travel to Geneva unless a deal was clearly at hand.
“If we conclude that it’s just a waste of time and that-and it’s being dragged on for no other objective than to gain time-then there will be no goal in us continuing”, the second official said.
Kerry’s offer includes intelligence sharing and joint targeting coordination. Under the plan being discussed, an “implementation cell” would house United States and Russian military planners together, sharing intelligence, maps and targeting information.
The officials provided the information on condition of anonymity in line with government rules. “If we get to the point where we think they are just playing for time, that’s probably when you’ll see us go in a different direction”. So it’s a tactical thing, but it’s also political. Washington would have to persuade the anti-Assad rebels it supports to end any coordination with al-Qaida and other extremist groups.
“We are on Sept 9, and the supplies under the September plan have not yet started”. “This coordination includes an understanding that there will not be bombings by the regime or random bombings by Russian Federation”.
A main point of contention is the mingling of opposition fighters, backed by USA and Middle East allies, and Nusra militants, mostly in southwestern Aleppo.
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O’Brien said no aid convoys have gotten into besieged areas of Syria this month, only airdrops.
