Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, speaking in Damascus, ruled out any debate of presidential elections.
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Kerry also said that a USA meeting with the foreign ministers of the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) would take place at some point in next few weeks in the region, but gave no date or precise venue.
The High Negotiations Committee, a Saudi-backed umbrella opposition group, said it will attend the Geneva talks and press for a transitional government with full executive powers.
“We have to talk about Syria”, Kerry said after he met the king as he began a separate discussion with the three other officials, according to a United States pool reporter accompanying him.
The talks will coincide with next week’s fifth anniversary of a war that has killed more than 250,000 people, created the world’s worst refugee crisis, and allowed for the expansion of the Islamic State group.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Ahrar Al Sham fired two heat-seeking missiles at the military aircraft flying over Kafr Nabuda.
“We are trying to help the moderate Syrian oppositionists to get consolidated and to agree on basic provisions of their common political program”, the diplomat said.
“By all accounts [violence] has been reduced by 80 to 90 percent, which is very, very significant”.
“From our side, when the Syrian people are ready to move in a certain direction, we will naturally agree to this”, he said at the time.
He said it would be the task of a “national unity government” to appoint a constitutional committee to draft a new constitution or amend the existing one.
Kerry discussed, in a phone call with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry, ways to support the peace talks and the United Nations envoy to Syria’s efforts to bring the conflicting sides together in Geneva.
“We know that they (the government) are committing crimes, and that they are preparing an air and ground escalation in the coming period”, he said, without elaborating.
Both the government and the HNC have agreed to participate in a fresh round of indirect talks in Geneva starting on Monday.
He criticised UNenvoy Staffan de Mistura, saying neither he or anyone else had the right to talk about presidential elections in Syria and demanding “neutrality and objectivity” on his part.
On Tuesday, the foreign ministers of Oman and Germany discussed regional issues, believing the truce has helped improve humanitarian situation in Syria and stimulate political talks among the different Syrian parties.
But “it is just not enough” , they said, as other communities remain cut off from assistance.
A pro-government Facebook acknowledged that a MiG-21 warplane went down over Kafr Nabuda but said it was due to “technical difficulties” , denying it had been shot down.
Protesters carry a Free Syrian Army flags during an anti-government protest in Aleppo, March 11.
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Assad’s fate has been the main obstacle in previous rounds of talks. Callers to the US hotline, at least at first, found that some operators did not understand much Arabic; when one caller tried to report an airstrike on a town called Harbinafsah, the location was recorded as “Harb Bebsi” – Pepsi War.
