U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said July 26 that talks with Russia
about cooperation in Syria were “making progress,” adding he hopes next
month to announce new steps aimed at ending the fighting, while U.S.
Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said that Russia is still far from American positions on Syria.
Russia
and the United States support opposing sides in Syria’s five-year war,
which has left 280,000 people dead and forced half the population to
flee their homes.
Speaking after fresh talks on July 26 with
Lavrov on the sidelines of a regional meeting in Laos, Kerry said
discussions were edging forward.
“I think we are making progress,” he told reporters.
“If
we do our work as effectively as it’s been done over the last days
since I was in Moscow my hope would be that somewhere in early August…
we would be in a position to be able to stand up in front of you and
tell you what we’re able to do,” he said.
“In simple terms…
what we’re trying to do is strengthen the cessation of hostilities,
provide a framework which allows us to actually get to the table and
have a real negotiation.”
On July 25, Carter struck a different note, saying Russia and America remained far from finding common ground on how to end the war.
Talks
led by Kerry are aimed at seeing if “it’s possible… for the Russians
to begin to do the right thing in Syria,” Carter said.
In other words, Russia’s policies that have prolonged the war should end, he said.
“We
had hoped that they would promote a political solution and transition
to put an end to the civil war which is the beginning of all this
violence in Syria,” Carter said referring to the regime of Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad.
But “they’re a long way from doing
that,” Carter stressed. “But that’s what Secretary Kerry’s trying to
promote. And getting the Russians to do the right thing.”
Lavrov said on July 26 that recent discussions between Russia
and the United States should encourage moderate Syrian opposition
groups to leave areas occupied by the al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria, thus
helping to implement a truce.
Meanwhile, U.N. Syria envoy Staffan
de Mistura said on July 26 he aimed to convene a new round of Syria
peace talks towards the end of August, quietly scrapping a previous
timeline while putting down a new deadline for a U.S.-Russia deal to
support the talks.
De Mistura, speaking after a meeting with U.S. Syria envoy Michael Ratney and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov, said the United States and Russia both needed to do more work in the coming days.
De
Mistura said the trilateral meeting in Geneva focused on the urgent
need for progress on Syria’s cessation of hostilities, access for
humanitarian aid, counter-terrorism and political transition.