As Syria's war rages, US and Russia back at diplomatic table
- by Leah Brady
- in Worldwide
- — Oct 16, 2016
And with rebel-held Aleppo poised to fall, potentially in a matter of weeks, there is deep skepticism that the Syrian and Russian governments want to stop the fighting just yet. -Russian ceasefire plan that many saw as the last hope for peace this year. He says some ideas "might be able to shape different approaches" toward a peace process in Syria.
A leading Syrian opposition group slammed global talks on Saturday, October 15, in Lausanne aimed at ending the 5-year war, as warplanes pressed fierce raids on second city Aleppo.
"But if you compare that with the ratcheting up of rhetoric and the increase in tensions between the United States and Russian Federation over the issue of Syria, specifically over Aleppo, over the past couple of weeks, this does give Lavrov and Kerry a chance to reset that rhetoric and perhaps get back to some discussion", he said.
The talks follow a week in which deadly airstrikes in eastern Aleppo continued to climb and United Nations officials warned of a dire situation.
He said it was too early to reveal what these ideas are, and that high-level contacts - but not a ministerial-level meeting - would continue on Monday to flesh them out.
Many in Syria's opposition say Kerry has put too much trust in Lavrov, with protracted diplomatic wrangling over cease-fires buying time for Russia's military campaign and obscuring the once central question of the fate of Syrian President Bashar Assad, while the clock runs down to the US elections on November 8.
On Friday, Lavrov had warned that Russian Federation was not planning on presenting new initiatives on ways to resolve the conflict, which has claimed more than 300,000 lives since 2011.
Abdal Ahad Stefo, deputy head of the Istanbul-based National Coalition, told AFP the negotiations "will only lead to wasting more time. and the shedding of more Syrian blood".
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President Barack Obama and the Pentagon have made clear their opposition to any US military strikes against Assad's military. "Do the Americans believe Moscow was shaken by the break-off last week and will change behaviour now?"
A Western diplomat in Lausanne said the meeting appeared ill-prepared and vague in its goals, and the list of invitees clarified only at the last moment.
Before the talks started, Kerry met separately with his Saudi counterpart Adel al-Jubeir and with Lavrov to discuss the logistics of the meeting.
Two ceasefire deals brokered by the world powers in February and mid-September both collapsed. The impending end of the Obama administration is likely to mean a hiatus in USA diplomacy while his successor, whether Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, takes up the reins.
When it comes to the current situation in Syria, pressure is rising for a halt to a ferocious, three-week-old Syrian government offensive to capture the rebel-held eastern zone of the city of Aleppo, where the United Nations says 275,000 civilians still live and 8,000 rebels are holding out against Syrian, Russian and Iranian-backed forces.
Western powers have accused Russian Federation and Syria of bombing hospitals, killing civilians and preventing medical evacuations in the rebel-held eastern zone of the city of Aleppo.
Previously, Russia and the United States had pursued a joint effort to impose a ceasefire, but this broke down when Syria's Bashar al-Assad launched an assault on rebel-held east Aleppo.
