Kerry, Lavrov to hold talks on Syria peace process

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry began talks in Moscow on resolving the Syrian civil war and combating Islamic State.

It is unclear whether the meeting will go ahead without progress between Russian Federation and the United States over the role of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in any political transition and over which rebel groups should be part of peace talks.

Kerry is in near constant touch with his Russian opposite number, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, but knows that the road to peace talks runs through the Kremlin. But the United States has repeatedly criticized Russian Federation, saying most of its strikes have not targeted the so-called Islamic State extremists.

Washington has accused Moscow of bombing moderate rebels in support of its ally, President Assad.

“Kerry, who will meet Putin later on Tuesday, told Lavrov: ‘Even when there have been differences between us we have been able to work effectively on specific issues'”. Russian Federation argues that the Syrian people should be the ones to decide the future of Assad and that his regime, backed by Russian Federation, should play a role in global efforts to squash the “Islamic State” (IS) militant group.

“We, for our part, will keep seeking that the U.S. administration review its policy that seeks to divide terrorists into “good” and “bad”, the statement says.

“On that route there are still questions which today we need to look at”, Lavrov said in his opening remarks.

“Russia made a significant contribution on the Iran nuclear agreement and now in both the Vienna discussions, Russian Federation has been a significant contributor to the progress that we have been able to make”, Kerry added.

On Thursday, representatives of Syrian opposition groups met in Riyadh and agreed on a broad plan that includes holding talks on a political transition with Assad’s government in early January.

Kerry’s trip to Moscow is his second to Russian Federation this year. And on Ukraine, Lavrov said the USA should use its influence with the government in Kiev to settle the conflict with the separatists by respecting a shaky cease-fire and moving ahead with political reforms in eastern Ukraine.

United States officials have expressed frustration that Assad is trying to set his own rules about which opponents he is prepared to talk to and which are irredeemable terrorists in his eyes.

“Both you and President Obama have committed themselves to trying to develop as much as possible…an approach that can try to deal with Ukraine and deal with Syria”, Kerry said.

Syrian opposition groups, however, demand that Assad leave at the start of the process.

The two presidents scheduled the meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit last month in Turkey.

The US believes Assad’s crackdown on protesters in March 2011 triggered a civil war that has killed 250,000 and driven recruits to IS, which profited from the chaos.