Powers Vow to Bolster Syria Truce but No Date for Talks
World and regional powers working to end the Syrian conflict vowed to bolster the country's shaky ceasefire Tuesday but failed to set a new date for peace talks.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov put on their now customary joint appearance, but strains in the peace process were evident.
United Nations envoy Staffan de Mistura said he could not invite Bashar Assad's regime and the Syrian opposition back to peace talks until there is a "credible" ceasefire.
Kerry said the International Syrian Support Group (ISSG) had agreed there would be "consequences" for parties breaching the ceasefire and vowed to maintain pressure on Assad.
But Lavrov restated the Russian position that Assad's army is the best placed local faction to fight the Islamic State "terrorist" group and that Moscow would support it.
The evident divisions between ISSG co-chairs Russia and the United States have cast a pall on efforts to agree a framework under which Syria would "transition" away from Assad's rule.
And Kerry admitted the August 1 date set by the U.N. Security Council for agreement on the political framework was a "target" not a deadline, apparently softening the U.S. stance.
Nevertheless, Kerry said the ISSG had agreed to strengthen its system for monitoring the ceasefire and that violators risked being expelled from the process.
Washington regularly accuses Assad's forces of violating the truce and of bombing civilians, whereas Russia accuses rebel factions of carrying out massacres.
"We have agreed consequences for any side's actions that have an agenda other than that of trying to reach an agreement and trying to reach peace."
The top U.S. diplomat again accused Assad's forces of deliberately starving besieged areas and said U.N. humanitarian agencies would be ordered to drop food.
"Starting on June 1, if the U.N. is denied humanitarian access to any of these designated areas, the ISSG calls on the World Food Program to immediately carry out a program for air bridges and air drops," he said.
Lavrov did not dispute Kerry's account of the agreement, but said Moscow's emphasis was on the fight against the Islamic State group and others he deemed terrorists.
"We don't support Assad, we support the fight against terrorism," he said, stressing that the strongman is the leader of a recognized U.N. member state.
"On the ground we don't see any more real and efficient force than the Syrian army, even given all its weaknesses."
Lavrov also denied that the ongoing ceasefire violations showed that Moscow has less influence over its Damascus ally that was once thought.
"As to whether Assad is ignoring our advice and our work with him or not -- no, he is not ignoring it," he said.
"Assad is fully aware and remembers that he has taken upon himself responsibilities to stick to the sequence of steps spelled out in Resolution 2254."
But Lavrov also recalled that the U.N. Security Council resolution that endorsed the peace plan had laid out that the transition could take up to 18 months.
And this, only after the framework is agreed.
For his part, De Mistura said he could not restart U.N.-mediated talks in Geneva if the fighting continues.
"The exact date, I am not at the moment revealing that," he said, referring to a possible resumption of indirect talks between the warring parties.
"Credible intra-Syrian talks will be credible when there is a credible cessation of hostilities and credible progress on the humanitarian side."
In one piece of positive news, at least from Washington's point of view, Kerry said the formerly 17-nation ISSG had welcomed Japan, Australia, Spain and Canada as new members.
But Washington's allies in the process, especially the Arab states backing Syria's rebels, are increasingly frustrated at Assad's apparent determination to stay on.
"There is no lasting future for Syria with Assad," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said as he arrived for the Vienna talks.
"That's why we need to discuss, under the auspices of the U.N., what a transition government could look like and put things on the right track," he added.
Acting through the ISSG, Washington and Moscow chivvied the warring parties into a shaky ceasefire in late February, but pockets of violence remain.
A regime air strike in Aleppo left at least seven civilians dead Tuesday, among them a mother and her young daughter, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
In Bdama in Idlib province in the northwest, large swathes of which are held by Al-Qaida's local affiliate Al-Nusra, regime strikes left eight civilians dead.
The Syrian war erupted in early 2011 after Assad's forces launched a brutal crackdown on anti-government protests, and has since claimed more than 270,000 lives.
Millions have been driven from their homes and a wave of refugees has joined a flow of migrants struggling to escape to Europe, causing a humanitarian and political crisis.
On the ground, U.S. allies like Saudi Arabia and Turkey back some of the rebel factions, while Russia has dispatched war planes and advisors and Iran troops to back Assad.
Source: Agence France Presse
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