Washington:U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry failed in his latest bid to get Russian agreement on a cease-fire deal for Syria, signaling the two sides remain far apart and postponing any chance of relief for a mushrooming humanitarian disaster in the country.
Kerry met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for about an hour Monday in Hangzhou, China, where the G-20 summit is being held. He was seeking to find a deal after Russian negotiators at a meeting the day before walked back from agreements the U.S. thought had been sorted, said a senior State Department official who asked not to be identified because the talks were private.
The failure was a surprise for U.S. officials, who came to Hangzhou confident a deal could be reached. Before Lavrov and Kerry met on Monday, State Department officials scheduled a call with reporters to discuss terms and set out two podiums in a conference room for a briefing. But the meeting ended without agreement, the call was canceled and only Kerry spoke. Kerry was due to leave China later Monday.
President Barack Obama had tamped down expectations on Monday for progress, saying the U.S. still had “grave differences” with Russia. On Monday, Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks in Hangzhou that lasted more than an hour.
The meeting went well, and “work will continue”, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Hangzhou afterward. He said Putin and Obama discussed Syria and issues related to Ukraine with their delegations present, and then spoke briefly in private.
While officials say talks will continue, Monday’s outcome reflects the complexity of the civil war in Syria and the challenge of finding common ground. The U.S. is arming opposition groups seeking to oust President Bashar al-Assad and has special forces troops on the ground, while Russian warplanes have helped the regime reverse earlier losses since joining the fight last year.
Caught in the middle are Syria’s civilians. Hundreds of thousands of people have died and millions have fled the conflict, seeking refuge in Europe. The crisis is particularly bad around the city of Aleppo, where U.S.-backed rebels are mixed up with fighters linked to al-Qaeda.
