Kerry, Lavrov meet to finalise details of Syria cooperation deal

26th, August 2016

GENEVA: US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov met in Geneva on Friday to try to hammer out final details of a cooperation agreement on fighting militants in Syria.

The hope is that a deal on fighting extremists in Syria will help lead to a cessation of hostilities between the army and its militia allies on one side and non-extremist rebels opposed to President Bashar al Assad, as a step towards relaunching talks on a political transition to end the five-year Syrian conflict.

Lavrov and Kerry met at a luxury hotel on Lake Geneva. Asked what the main impediment was to a nationwide ceasefire, Lavrov quipped: “I don’t want to spoil the atmosphere for the negotiations.”

While Kerry said this week that technical teams from both sides were close to the end of their discussions, US officials indicated it was too early to say whether an agreement was likely.

“There are still issues that need to be ironed out,” a senior State Department official said as the talks began.

“We’re hopeful that today could see resolution on at least some of them, and that we can move this plan forward,” the official said, “But we’re mindful of the challenges.”

When Kerry launched the Syrian cooperation talks in July during a visit to Moscow, the proposal involved Washington and Moscow sharing military intelligence to coordinate air strikes against IS and grounding the Syrian air force to stop it from attacking moderate rebel groups.

Kerry believes the plan is the best chance to limit the fighting that is driving thousands of Syrians into exile in Europe and preventing humanitarian aid from reaching tens of thousands more, as well as preserving a political track.

Meanwhile, Turkey shelled Kurdish militia fighters in Syria on the second day of a major military operation inside the country, saying they were failing to observe a deal with the US to stop advancing in IS-held territory.

Turkey says Operation Euphrates Shield — its most ambitious offensive of the five-and-a-half year Syrian civil war — is aimed at ridding the northern Syrian border area of both IS extremists and the Kurdish militia.

Defence Minister Fikri Isik warned the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia — who also had designs on Jarabulus — to move back east across the Euphrates or also face intervention from Turkey. Hours later, Turkish artillery shelled targets of the PYD inside Syria, the state-run Anadolu news agency said, saying the group had violated a deal with the United States to stop advancing. — Reuters/AFP