White House says Kerry will press Russian Federation on Turkey de-escalation

Kerry arrives in Moscow to hold talks with Lavrov & Russian President Vladimir Putin.

US Secretary of State John Kerry is in Moscow for talks to try to bridge gaps with Russian Federation over the political process to end Syria’s civil war.

Speaking before Kerry visits Moscow on Tuesday in Paris, the State Department official said Kerry would raise concerns about Russia’s continued bombing of Syrian opposition forces instead of Islamic State militants, an approach likely to anger Moscow.

The run-up to the Moscow talks underlined the distance between Moscow and Washington on how to deal with the Syria crisis.

On Thursday, representatives of Syrian opposition groups met in Riyadh and agreed on a broad plan that includes holding talks on a political transition with Assad’s government in early January.

Moscow summoned a Turkish military attaché over the incident, telling the official of “potentially disastrous consequences from Ankara’s reckless actions toward Russia’s military continent fighting against global terrorism in Syria”, the Defense Ministry said in a statement.

The U.S. has been targeting the Islamic State group bases in Syria since September 2014 but unlike Russian Federation they do not co-ordinate their raids with the authorities in Damascus.

“The world benefits when powerful nations with a long history with each other have the ability to be able to find the common ground”.

The results of Tuesday’s meetings will determine whether or not a new worldwide diplomatic conference on Syria will go ahead as planned Friday at the United Nations.

“In determining spheres for joint work with the USA, we continue to be guided by own interests and by strengthening our own and global security”, the statement said.

US Secretary of State John Kerry speaks to reporters following a…

Kerry called Lavrov the “co-convenor” of the talks and thanked him for his efforts “to lead us up now hopefully to getting to NY and building on the progress that’s been made”.

Rae McGrath, country director for Turkey and North Syria for the American aid agency Mercy Corps, one of the largest providers of food aid in northern Syria, said this is an emerging humanitarian crisis in the war affected areas of Syria.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the new alliance was good in principle but that the devil was in the details. “We are on the side of de-escalating tense situations through dialogue”, said Cavusoglu.

Backed by the United States and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, meanwhile, did not even apologize for the deaths of two Russian airmen after the Su-24 was downed, and has since maintained a hostile and provocative stance against Russia.