There was hope that Friday’s talks between Kerry and Lavrov might help boost those efforts.
Advertisement
The U.S. State Department said while Washington backed the 48-hour Aleppo cease-fire it was focused on achieving a broader country-wide cessation of hostilities, which would be the focus of talks in Geneva on Friday.
The U.N. envoy, Staffan de Mistura, briefly sat in Friday with Kerry and Lavrov.
A U.S. -Russian military and intelligence working group has agreed on maps demarcating the primary locations of the Islamic State and Jabhat Fatah al-Sham extremist groups, places where those groups are mixed with U.S-backed rebel fighters and areas primarily populated by civilians. Last week, the USA had to call for Russian help when Syrian warplanes struck an area not far from where US troops were operating.
“We’re hopeful that today could see resolution on at least some of them, and that we can move this plan forward, but we’re mindful of the challenges”, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity as the closed-door session began.
For their part, US officials say they are willing to press rebels groups they support harder on separating themselves from the Islamic State and al-Nusra, which despite a recent name change is still viewed as al-Qaida’s affiliate in Syria.
The United Nations has pushed for a weekly 48-hour pause in fighting in Aleppo to alleviate suffering for about 2 million people, but major powers back opposing sides in Syria’s five-year-old civil war, complicating its implementation.
Before those talks can begin, though, USA officials say it is imperative that Russian Federation use its influence with Syrian President Bashar Assad to halt all attacks on moderate opposition forces, open humanitarian aid corridors, and concentrate any offensive action on the Islamic State group and other extremists not covered by what has become a largely ignored truce. But at the same time, Turkish forces have also shelled a US-backed Syrian Kurdish militia. Under the USA -proposed coordination deal, which the White House has approved over Pentagon objections, Russian and American planners would coordinate targets in real time and agree on whose aircraft would strike them.
According to the U.S. mission in Geneva, Kerry arrived in Geneva on Thursday evening for the talks.
While Kerry said this week that technical teams from both sides were close to the end of their discussions, US officials indicated it was too early to say whether an agreement was likely.
“We may have different views about some of the causes of the problems, but the fact is we both are committed to trying to find a way to get the cessation of hostilities to be more effective and to be fully implemented”.
Advertisement
The statement came amid reports that rebel forces that have occupied the Damascus suburb of Darayya for four years have agreed to leave the town in exchange for evacuation of 8,000 remaining residents.
