Secretary of State John Kerry remains “on the verge” of suspending talks with Russia over their intervention in the Syrian civil war, despite threatening to do so “immediately” two days ago.
“We are at the same place,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters. “We have not definitely suspended our diplomatic relations regarding Syria with Russia. We’re on the verge because we have not yet seen them take the kind of actions that we’re looking to see them take, but we’re not there yet and the conversation continues.”
Kerry’s continued dialogue with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov prompted reporters to recall that President Obama previously refused to carry out his threat to bomb Syrian dictator Bashar Assad over the use of chemical weapons. Toner, emphasizing that he can’t describe the details of Kerry’s phone calls with Lavrov, dismissed concerns that the State Department lacks credibility with Russia.
“I can’t speak to whether they do or don’t take us seriously, but they should,” he said.
Toner acknowledged that the United States has “other options” if talks break down entirely.
“Many of them are not very good,” he added. “So before we definitively slam the door here we want to make sure that we understand the stakes and that Russia understands the stakes, more importantly.
Kerry is already taking criticism from some Senate Democrats, who believe that Russia took advantage of the recent ceasefire agreement in order to allow Assad to prepare for a major offensive against the rebel-held city of Aleppo.
“I think that the temporary truce that was created, from the Russian perspective, never had a real calculation to actually effectuate the results of what Secretary Kerry intended,” Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., said Thursday during a Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Syria.
That came as several Democrats called for the Obama administration to develop an alternative strategy for the Syria crisis. “[T]he current effort is not working,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., told Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken during Thursday’s hearing.
Toner acknowledged that the United States has “other options” in Syria. “Many of them are not very good,” he added. “So before we definitively slam the door here we want to make sure that we understand the stakes and that Russia understands the stakes, more importantly.”
Those options include levying sanctions on Russia for their involvement in attacks on Syrian civilians over the last year, but the Obama administration hasn’t used that tactic in order to preserve the possibility of negotiating with Russia.
“Sanctions can be very effective,” Toner explained. “But we also want to weigh that with our ability to work effectively with Russia, so we just haven’t reached that decision point yet.”
