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 Group of 20 summit is being held. He was seeking 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 meeting was productive, the official said, adding that both sides expect to meet in coming days to try to resolve remaining technical issues.
The failure surprised U.S. officials, who came to Hangzhou confident a deal could be reached. Before Lavrov and Kerry met on Sunday, 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 Sunday 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.
Talks to Continue
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.
’Remaining Gaps’
A senior Obama administration official said the president and Putin "clarified remaining gaps" preventing a deal to end the violence in Syria and directed Kerry and Lavrov to continue talks to resolve differences. The official said talks lasted longer than previous exchanges and focused on core issues.
Obama underscored the ongoing bombardment of civilians by the Assad regime is both a humanitarian crisis and also ultimately something that has fueled terrorism, the official said.
On Ukraine, the official said Obama made clear that sanctions against Russia would continue unless the Minsk agreement was implemented. The president said he would consult with European partners in coming days.
Sharing Intelligence
Under a proposal floated by Kerry, the two sides would share intelligence to carry out strikes against the al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria called Nusra Front but now known as Jabhat Fatah Al-Sham. Syria’s air force would be grounded in those and other areas in an effort to halt the humanitarian crisis and stop bombing the moderate opposition, while the various parties would come to the table for talks on a political settlement.
A main stumbling block has been identifying which areas are controlled by Jabhat Fatah Al-Sham, and which by the moderate opposition. The U.S. has accused Russia and Syria of deliberately targeting opposition groups under the guise of fighting terrorists. Russia, in turn accuses the U.S. of sheltering terrorist groups.
The civil war began with Assad’s crackdown on protesters demanding greater freedom during the Arab Spring of 2011. It has since evolved into a complex proxy war, with Assad getting support from Russia and Iran, while the U.S., Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf states back those who seek to oust him.
Capitalizing on the chaos, Islamic State controls large swathes of the country, while Jabhat Fatah Al-Sham has emerged, sometimes mingling with or fighting side-by-side with more moderate rebels who could potentially feature in a political transition.
Obama and Putin discussed possible joint military action against the al-Qaeda affiliate but the administration official said that point remained unresolved.
In talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Obama said progress was being made to clear out Islamic State militants on Turkey’s border, an objective to prevent the flow of foreign fighters into Syria, the official said. The official described Erdogan as being quite positive about U.S.-Turkey ties.
(Updates with official’s description of the talks throughout.)
--With assistance from Justin Sink and Angela Greiling Keane To contact the reporters on this story: Nick Wadhams in Hangzhou, China at nwadhams@bloomberg.net, Ilya Arkhipov in Hangzhou, China at iarkhipov@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Rosalind Mathieson at rmathieson3@bloomberg.net, Ken Wills, Jeff Kearns
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