Kerry and Russia’s Lavrov talk about Syrian political process again

His position is unchanged after nearly five years of conflict.

In a telephone conversation Tuesday, President Barack Obama and Saudi King Salman spoke about cooperating closely to fight the Islamic State and to “establish the conditions for a political transition in Syria“, according to a White House statement.

“To begin with, he is now an alleged war criminal, because of the destruction he has brought to the country”.

Egypt has yet to publicly answer a call from Russian Federation to take part in future worldwide talks on Syria along with Iran.

It was not a question of trust, he said.

If President Putin intends to continue this military involvement in the future by integrating Russian ground troops against the rebels, he should take into account that the price will be high and Russian blood will be spilled.

“Multilateral diplomacy requires maximizing people who can have a positive impact, and we obviously want to see this have a positive impact”.

“Many external actors and not only those four that gathered in Vienna are obviously involved in the Syrian crisis”, he said. As US Navy Commander Garrett I. Campbell wrote for the Brookings Institution, Russia’s firing of cruise missiles from warships in the Caspian Sea 900 miles away from their targets showed a “previously unknown capability” for Russia’s military.

The diplomatic effort which Kerry and others are hoping to revive is called the Geneva process. It seems that talk about transition and elections may be an impractical compromise. “If the Russians are serious to come and find a solution to Syria, they should push Assad out of power, because he is the generator who produced all the extremists in Syria”. SANA said Assad told the visitors that “the elimination of terrorist groups” would lead to the political solution sought by both Syria and Russian Federation.

But Lavrov added that there was still no agreement between Russian Federation and the U.S.-led coalition on who could be considered as terrorists in Syria. There he gave President Vladimir Putin credit for outmaneuvering the US and said Russian Federation was now in a position to demand attention and respect.

In a further sign of Russia’s widening sway, Lavrov announced in Vienna an intelligence-sharing arrangement with Jordan in the shape of a counter-terror coordination center in Amman.

“I can not share any concrete details with you so far apart from the fact that we are actively working with other capitals on Syria to build on the Vienna meeting”.

“The special forces were pulled out of Ukraine and sent to Syria in a bid to coordinate with Iranian military advisers against rebels”, an anti-Assad rebel commander said. The FSA is an amalgam of rebel groups, a few headed by defectors from the Syrian army, and includes factions armed and trained by the Central Intelligence Agency and others backed by Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

But no date or guest list has been confirmed for the talks, and the US State Department admitted on Monday (local time) that the situation was complex and that talks may drag on.

Prince Turki al-Faisal, Saudi Arabia’s former ambassador to Washington and former intelligence chief, said as much Friday at the Center for Strategic and global Studies in Washington.