Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday that he and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov hope to meet by Thursday to find a way to boost the deteriorating ceasefire in Syria.
“I just talked to Lavrov; that’s why I’m a little late for you,” Kerry told members of the U.S. mission to Geneva on Monday. “I was upstairs talking to him, and we’ve agreed to get a meeting together by this Thursday to deal with some politics.”
“We’ve got a meeting standing up a stronger center here in Geneva that will work on the enforcement of the cessation, and I think we’re recalibrating and reinstituting this cessation,” he added. “And so I feel like in the next 24 hours to 48 hours, we can get something out there that really puts this back together again with a greater level of adherence for a period of time.”
The ceasefire in Syria has faltered for weeks now, and Syrian opposition groups have said those attacks mean they can’t participate in political talks aimed at imposing new political leaders in the country.
While Kerry has talked previously about finding a “Plan B” to end the fighting in Syria, President Obama has more recently said there is no new effort.
The White House has also said it’s best to “chip away” at peace in Syria using its current plan.
