The United States and Russian Federation failed on Friday to reach a breakthrough deal on military cooperation and a nationwide cessation of hostilities in Syria but said they had a few “narrow” issues to resolve before an agreement could be announced.
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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.
Russian Federation has repeatedly called on the USA to separate its “moderate” fighters from the al Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra front.
Kerry voiced hope that re-establishing a geniune cease-fire could “open the window of opportunity for us to be able to get to the table here in Geneva, and have a real negotiation about the future”.
“I’m convinced the Kurds should have a full-fledged representation in that process, should remain an integral part of the Syrian state and be part of a solution to the problem”, Lavrov said. But critical sticking points remained unresolved and experts would stay in Geneva to try to finalise those, he said.
While the US and Russian Federation are still at odds about the fate of Syrian President Bashar Assad, and differ on how to fight the rebel groups, the talks might at least bring about a weekly 48-hour pause in fighting to allow United Nations aid convoys to reach the city of Aleppo in northwest Syria.
Mr Kerry said the Syrian government, with the help of its allies including Russian Federation, continued to breach the terms of an existing cessation of hostilities agreement.
Western Aleppo, where needs have “increased dramatically”, would be supplied via Damascus, he said.
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.
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. But equally high on the Turkish agenda was preventing US -supported Syrian Kurdish forces fighting the Islamic State from occupying Jarabulus and the surrounding border area.
Meanwhile, in a blow to the opposition, rebel forces and civilians in the besieged Damascus suburb of Daraya were to be evacuated on Friday after agreeing to surrender the town late Thursday after four years of grueling bombardment and a crippling siege that left the sprawling area in ruins.
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“I think there’s a shift in the balance of intellectual opinion in the administration, toward postponing “Assad must go” in the name of providing humanitarian assistance to save lives”, Kupchan said.
