The United Nations is hoping to start talks aimed at establishing a ceasefire in Syria on Friday, a few days later than planned, and amid sharp disagreements about the goals of the talks and who should be included.
Staffan de Mistura, the United Nations’ Syria envoy, told reporters Monday that the latest round of the negotiations would begin in Geneva on Friday and invitations would go out Tuesday. He stressed that parties to the talks should not be issuing preconditions in the talks, which were foreseen in a political agreement reached last November in Austria.
But that statement came after claims from officials in Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government that it won’t give up any territory as part of a political settlement to end the war. Assad’s government cited military gains they’ve achieved since the Russians started backing them with airstrikes last fall.
Meanwhile, Turkey has threatened to boycott the talks if a Kurdish Syrian opposition group, which the U.S. supports, is included in the Geneva process.
Secretary of State John Kerry, while traveling in Laos on Monday, tried to dispel any notion that Russia’s airstrikes supporting Assad should negate any concessions from the Syrian government.
“[The Assad government] controls a tiny portion of the country — most of it’s controlled by [the Islamic State] or by Kurds or by somebody else,” he said. “The war does not end as long as that’s their attitude.”
Russia, he argued, is going to participate in the talks in Geneva and “they’re willing to negotiate.”
“We’re going to know very quickly, in a month or two or three, whether these guys are serious,” he said.
Kerry also reiterated the U.S. position that Assad must go if there is any hope for an end to the bloody civil war.
“We’ve said 100,000 times [that] Assad cannot be part of the long-term future of Syria because you can’t end the war if he is. It’s very simple,” he said. “Nothing has changed.”
Participants were hoping to start the talks by today, Jan. 25. But Kerry said he agreed with de Mistura’s effort to take a few days and ensure full participation.
“You don’t want to start and have it sort of crumble on day — you just don’t want to do that,” Kerry said. “So it’s worth taking a day or two or three or whatever. I’m all for that.”
He also dismissed talk coming out of Syria as “tensions.”
