Separating Syrian moderates from terrorists could tank talks

Kerry said the Obama administration remains committed to defeating ISIS, to containing the Syrian conflict within that country’s borders and “intensifying” diplomatic efforts to end the Syrian civil war, which he said has been a “central concern” of the USA government.

Deadly attacks in Paris forced a shift in the focus of Syrian peace talks on Saturday to the fight against Islamic State, with France saying foreign ministers meeting in Vienna should concentrate on the battlefield rather than political process.

“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.

Arriving in the Austrian capital, Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said that the “heinous” attacks in Paris are in “violation and contravention of all ethics, morals and religions”.

Iran has intervened in Syria to prop up the nation’s president and is an integral backer of the Assad regime. Both these factions are also fighting the Islamic State group, which, despite recent setbacks in Iraq, still retains control over vast swathes of northern Syria.

The United States, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Iran, who haven’t agreed on much so far, will try this weekend to decide which of Syria’s fighting forces are common enemies and which can be included in a transition government with President Bashar Assad. The USA states the Syrian leader must step down if there’s to be any political decision aimed toward ending the war.

“The political future of Dr. Bashar Assad should only be decided by the Syrian people in democratic elections”, said Iran’s deputy foreign minister for Arab and African affairs, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, speaking in Beirut on Wednesday following a visit to Moscow.

“Measure it by whether there was a genuine discussion about things that really do divide us, including the future of Assad, which is what we should be getting on to, as well as these famous lists, the lists of who counts as a terrorist and the list of who counts as an opposition group”, they added.

Hesitant, and sometimes openly pessimistic, views about the chance of progress in Vienna also were voiced by analysts.

“So this meeting is going to accomplish exactly what?” asked Anthony Cordesman, a defense and security scholar at the Center for Strategic and global Studies in Washington.

Nevertheless, world powers are motivated to make progress, said Perry Cammack, a Middle East analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for worldwide Peace.

“I can not say… that we are on the threshold of a comprehensive agreement, no”, Mr Kerry had said on Thursday.

– June 30, 2012: A so-called action group meeting in Geneva says it has reached agreement on a Syrian transition of power, but quickly reveals differing interpretations of the deal.

Kerry traveled to Vienna from Tunis, his first stop after leaving Washington on Thursday.