US, Russia consider IS a ‘worldwide threat’ – Kerry

After the talks the top diplomats are expected to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “I think the world benefits when powerful nations with a long history with each other have the ability to be able to find common ground”. The results of Tuesday’s meetings will determine whether or not a new global diplomatic conference on Syria will go ahead as planned Friday at the United Nations.

He also said that the meeting would cover the matter of Ukraine, with its continued division between the Western-backed government in Kiev and the Russian-backed separatists in its East. USA TODAY Resumed violence threatens Ukraine cease-fire On Syria, Washington favors a political transition in that may see President Bashar Assad eventually step apart, while Moscow is adamant in that exclusively the Syrian people could make in that call. 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.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, shakes hands with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2015.

Mr Lavrov said the Islamic State (ISIS) issue was not limited to Syria, as the group was also active in Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen. “They are the worst of terrorists”.

Appearing beside Kerry, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov hailed what he described as a “big negotiating day”, saying the sides advanced efforts to define what a Syrian transition process might look like.

Syrian opposition groups, however, demand that Assad leave at the start of the process – a point they reiterated at last week’s meeting in Saudi Arabia – which is supposed to begin in early January, once the opposition groups have settled on a delegation to negotiate with the government.

The trip is Kerry’s second to Russian Federation this year – he met with Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi in May – but his first since frosty relations over Ukraine were exacerbated by Moscow’s intervention in Syria in late September. “As President Obama said in NY, there is nothing more important than to reach an agreement on Ukraine and move up on the economic agenda”, Kerry said. The sooner Russia implements a February cease-fire that calls for withdrawal of Russian forces and materiel and a release of all prisoners, he said, the sooner that “sanctions can be rolled back”.