Kerry-Lavrov move forward on Syria talks
August 27, 2016, 5:25 am

US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov have routinely met in recent years to iron out a mutual approach to ending the Syrian conflict [Xinhua]

Acknowledging that previous efforts – notably the February ceasefire agreement – failed to materialize into a concrete solution to end the five-year civil war, Kerry said that he and his Russian counterpart were now close to ironing out yet another peace initiative.

“As we have all seen now, violations eventually became the norm rather than the exception,” Kerry told reporters.

During a press conference in Geneva where he met Lavrov, Kerry said that the only way forward for the Syrian people was to negotiate a political resolution to the conflict.

“But as I have said to you in other contexts before, we’re not going to rush to an agreement until it satisfies fully the needs of the Syrian people and the ability of the international community to address them in ways that can show real results,” he added.

The Kerry-Lavrov meeting came as Syrian government forces were finally able to capture the rebel-held town of Darayya near the capital Damascus after a four-year siege forced the Islamist militia there to withdraw under an agreement reached with President Bashar Al Assad.

For his part, Lavrov hailed the talks with his American counterpart saying that the two sides have now minimized the differences between them and narrowed their vision for a peaceful solution to the Syrian crisis.

“In fact, today our American partners for the first time gave us a list of rebel organizations who joined the cessation of hostilities after the US mediation,” Lavrov added.

While it said that peace talks must be inclusive of all parties, Moscow has always maintained that some factions were merely terrorist organization that could not participate in negotiations.

“I don’t see any possibility of assuring a really durable, full-fledged ceasefire without the separation of healthy opposition forces from terrorists,” Lavrov told journalists.

Kerry met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow last month amid media speculation the two world powers were moving closer to increased intelligence sharing and military cooperation regarding Syria.

The BRICS Post with inputs from Agencies