Syria: Talks failed to form united front against ‘terrorism’

Also on Saturday, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that disagreements over Assad’s fate should not hold up a humanitarian cease-fire or a wider deal to end the war in Syria.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he was hopeful of finding a path forward.

The armed opposition to Assad’s regime primarily consists of the Free Syrian Army, the Islamic Front and ISIS militants.

The Syrian regime and the opposition were not represented.

Disagreement continued over the role, if any, that President Bashar al-Assad might play in a transitional government beyond negotiating an initial ceasefire. He last visited the Syrian capital in September. “The first has to do with the timing of the departure of Bashar Assad, there was no agreement reached”, Jubier said, “and the second one has to do with the timing and the means of the withdrawal of foreign forces from Syria, in particular Iranian forces, which incidentally we view as an occupying force”.

“But because of that we have lost three years, there have been more than 250,000 dead, more than 13 million displaced within Syria… more than 50 percent of hospitals, schools and infrastructure have been destroyed”.

The regional countries backing Syrian rebels have demanded that Mr Al Assad depart at the beginning of a political transition and devolve his authority to a transitional body made up of representatives from all of the country’s groups.

Underscoring the search for a compromise, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius only said Assad should step aside “at one moment or another”.

“The Syrian government insists that President Assad should be part of [the transitional government]; many countries, particularly the West, say that there is no place for him”. That the two nations are in Vienna is because the Russians and U.S. are there to keep them at arms length as there is no way they can back down on their take on Assad, so boldly and eloquently spoken and backed with violence so far before their journey to Vienna.

He said the Vienna meeting was the first time that “all the countries that hold the key to a resolution” had been present.