Kerry, diplomats agree to Syria transition plan

Kerry said parties to the Syria talks agreed on Saturday to accelerate efforts to end the conflict in the Arab country by launching negotiations between the government and opposition by January and holding elections within 18 months.

Previous rounds of talks held in Vienna in recent weeks, also with delegates from several countries including those invested in Syria’s war – Iran, Saudi Arabia, Russia, the United States and Turkey – had failed. “That will help to end the bloodshed as quickly as possible and I might add that will help rapidly to define who wants to be considered a terrorist and who is not”, said US Secretary of State John Kerry. “But we do agree on this: It’s time for the bleeding to stop”.

Interestingly, a day after the attacks in Paris, a French delegation of politicians and intellectuals met President Bashar Al Assad in Damascus displaying a healing touch of dialogue.

“We did not come here to impose our collective will on the Syrian people, exactly the opposite”, he told reporters at the end of the talks. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said the attacks in Paris made it all the more necessary for the global community to find a common approach in Syria and terrorism, sentiments echoed by the foreign ministers of Germany, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

A key backer of Assad throughout Syria’s war, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called the attacks “crimes against humanity”.

Khaled Khoja expressed the “strongest condemnation of the horrific terrorist attacks of Paris and… we confirm our solidarity with our friends – the French nation”.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov agreed, saying that the attacks were “no justification” to ease up on tackling radical jihadists such as ISIS and the Al-Nusra Front, affiliated to Al-Qaeda.

At the last Syria talks on October 30, the participants urged the United Nations to broker a peace deal between the regime and opposition to clear the way for a new constitution and elections.

Assad said he had “warned against what would happen in Europe for the past three years”.

It has carried out air strikes in Iraq for more than a year and extended them to Syria in September.

“Syria is a sovereign country, Bashar al-Assad is a president elected by the people”, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview released Friday.

Putting that aside, the talks will focus on deciding which of the Syrian government, rebel and opposition factions – none of whom will be represented at the talks – will shape the country’s future.

“Daesh [ISIL] has claimed it is behind this”, said Kerry.