Kerry: Syrian government and opposition to meet by January 1

Maleh was detained by the Syrian government several times for opposing the regime and expressing, through his writing, the urgency of a dramatic political change in Syria when Assad took power after the death of his father, Hafez al-Assad.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier also said that there will be efforts to create a new constitution for the war-torn country and attempts to create a transitional government within 18 months. At the previous “Vienna meeting” it was stated that the countries involved in the negotiating process on the settlement of the Syrian issue should agree on a common list of terrorist organizations and discuss options for a political solution to the conflict.

“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.

“We have reiterated that the Syrian future will be decided by the Syrian people alone”, Lavrov said.

Governmental and “the whole spectrum of opposition forces” should gather together no later than January 1, 2016, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced at a press-conference in the Austrian capital, following Saturday’s talks.

Reporting from Vienna, the Wall Street Journal’s Laurence Norman reports on the talks on how to resolve the Syrian crisis.

Syria as a breeding ground for terrorism moved Saturday to the foreground of a meeting of foreign ministers on the war in that country, with participants linking the shooting and bombing attacks in Paris to Mideast turmoil and the opportunities it gives for terror.

“One of the objectives of the Vienna meeting is to see concretely how we can strengthen the worldwide coordination in the fight against Daesh”, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told reporters in Vienna before the main meeting started. And just like there is no justification for terrorist acts, which is the position of the Security Council, I believe, as John said, there will be no justification for us not doing much more to defeat ISIL, al-Nusrah, and the like.

The Vienna talks are expected to focus on identifying Syria’s moderate opposition groups, as well as those that are considered terrorist entities.

The Vienna talks included an global consensus on a time table of establishing a transition government of Syria and holding an election within 18 months.

Breaking through Islamic State lines outside the air base in Aleppo “represents a significant psychological victory for the regime and its allies”, according to the Syria blog of the Institute for the Study of War, which monitors the fighting. “That’s the perception of the people waging the war”. France and other European states face a security threat from radicalized citizens, who travel to Syria to aid militant groups such as ISIL and Al Nusra Front.

The participants also agreed to meet before the end of the year in Paris to go over progress made toward the cease-fire and the selection of delegations for the political talks.

“The walls of mistrust within Syria, within the region, within the global community are thick and they are high”.