Qatar- Kerry: chances for Syria diplomacy depend on military balance

Date

11/12/2015 11:04:58 PM

(MENAFN- The Peninsula)

By David Brunnstrom and Arshad Mohammed

WASHINGTON: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged nations gathering for Syria peace talks to show flexibility and said the chances of a diplomatic solution hinged in part on the military balance.

Speaking before he headed to the Vienna talks which he said would include officials from Iran Russia Saudi Arabia Turkey and Europe Kerry defended diplomatic efforts to end the civil war even as he acknowledged a solution was not near.

"I cannot say this afternoon that we are on the threshold of a comprehensive agreement" Kerry told a Washington think tank. "America's message to each (participant) is that we all have a responsibility not to dig in our heels but to take the next forward step - so that the bleeding can stop."

He also said that the emergence of any eventual agreement will depend on ground struggle as well as on bridging the fundamental U.S. disagreement with Russia and Iran on the future of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The United States argues that Assad must go following any political transition while Russia says his fate should be decided by the Syrian people in an election.

At least 250000 people have died in Syria's four-and-a-half year civil war which began when Assad responded with force to peaceful protests against his family's long authoritarian rule.

There are three broad parties to the conflict: forces loyal to Assad moderate Syrian opposition forces and forces of the Islamic State militant group which has seized parts of Syria and Iraq and which the United States has vowed to defeat.

Backed by U.S. air strikes Kurdish forces have started clearing parts of the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar and have set up positions along an Islamic State supply route between its two main strongholds in Mosul Iraq and in Raqqa Syria the U.S.-led coalition said.

Kerry stressed the importance of the ground battle even as he set off for the Vienna talks which he said would include China Egypt France Germany Iran Iraq Italy Jordan Lebanon Oman Qatar Russia Saudi Arabia Turkey the United Arab Emirates Arab League European Union and United Nations.

Mindful of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan U.S. President Barack Obama has ruled out the large-scale deployment of U.S. forces to Syria and embraced a strategy of air strikes with local partners against Islamic State militants.

On Oct. 30 he ordered up to 50 U.S. special operations forces to advise moderate Syrian fighters.

"The chance for successful diplomacy depends in part on the ability to exert leverage on control of territory and on perceptions about who is gaining or has the upper hand" Kerry said. "There is increasing evidence in both Iraq and Syria that (Islamic State) can be defeated even routed when faced by the combination of coalition air strikes and effective partners on the ground."

Reuters

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