Key countries meet to push forward Syrian peace process

On Tuesday, Secretary of State John Kerry accepted Russia’s long-standing demand that President Bashar Assad’s future be determined by his own people, as Washington and Moscow edged toward putting aside years of disagreement over how to end Syria’s civil war.

Spurred on by the deadly attacks in Paris, the 17 nations overcame their differences on how to end the civil war in Syria and agreed to the roadmap for a political transition now being worked on. In recent months, the two countries have split on how to fight Islamic State in Syria. It has resulted in more than 250,000 deaths and made refugees of half of Syria’s 22 million people.

The summit will be attended by Italian foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni Yesterday, the USA diplomacy chief spoke on the phone with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov to discuss a resolution of the Syrian conflict and today’s meeting.

It also endorsed the continued battle to defeat militants from the Islamic State group who have seized large swaths of both Syria and neighbouring Iraq.

On Friday, in a sign of how thorny the issue is set to be, the Syrian chief of the first broad opposition coalition said they could not accept a political transition that involves Mr Assad.

Those around the table included the United States, key European nations and Saudi Arabia, who support the Syrian opposition, and the Assad government’s top allies, Russian Federation and Iran.

“Either that, or no negotiation”, Hijab told reporters, following his election as general coordinator for a High Committee set up at unprecedented talks last week in the Saudi capital to unify political and armed Syrian factions.

Russian Federation says it was shot down within Syrian airspace and President Vladimir Putin vented his anger at Turkey’s government again on Thursday, accusing it of subservience to the U.S. and of “creeping Islamisation”.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power phoned the remaining 10 members of the council to brief them on the text, said diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity. Nagham al-Ghadri, vice president of the Syrian National Coalition, told Al Jazeera.

The resolution calls for the talks to begin in January, with a goal of establishing “credible, inclusive and non-sectarian governance” within six months and free and fair elections by mid-2017. “He has lost legitimacy in the eyes of the country”.

The deal on a draft resolution came on the sidelines of a meeting of the so-called International Syria Support Group met at New York’s Palace Hotel. Beyond Assad, these include which rebel groups in Syria should be allowed to participate in the transition process and which should be deemed terrorists; and like the ISIS and al-Qaida, combated by all.

Assad, in his interview with Dutch television, turned sarcastic when asked whether he was comforted that the West’s stances on his departure were seemingly softening.

However, actions against groups considered terrorist organisations would not be affected.

“I’m confused”, the MSNBC host said.