GENEVA: US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov resumed negotiations on a Syrian cease-fire plan on Friday, with US officials saying they believed a deal was still possible but warning the talks could not go on forever.
Senior State Department officials briefing reporters on Kerry’s flight to Switzerland played down the prospect of a final breakthrough on Syria from Friday’s talks, although they said “steady progress” had been made in recent weeks.
“We’ve been taking issues off the table because we’ve reached an understanding on them and continue to have some issues that remain outstanding and that we have been unable to close,” one official said.
Issues still to be resolved were “highly technical and complicated,” the official said. “We can’t guarantee at this point that we are on the cusp of finishing.”
Kerry’s meeting with Lavrov is their third in two weeks and they have spoken several times by telephone to try to narrow differences on a Syrian peace plan.
A second US official said that while Kerry would try to make progress, “patience is not infinite” and the United States would not simply keep talking if a conclusion was not reached “relatively soon.”
The officials declined to elaborate on what Washington might do if the talks broke down.
Kerry’s proposal for military cooperation with Russia over Syria has faced strong pushback from US defense and intelligence officials who argue that Moscow cannot be trusted.
The second official said one of the reasons Kerry kept up the effort was because the Syrian opposition supported it as a way to stop the worst violence in their country.
Under the plan being discussed by Kerry and Lavrov, a cessation of hostilities agreement would halt violence between rival forces and open humanitarian corridors
Kerry again tries with Lavrov to find Syria solution; US says its patience not infinite
Kerry again tries with Lavrov to find Syria solution; US says its patience not infinite
