A meeting on Syria with the participation of the foreign ministers of Russia, the United States, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran continued in Vienna on Friday, October 30, after representatives from countries including the UK, China, Egypt, Iraq and Jordan joined the larger meeting on Friday morning.
The summit will focus on a possible solution for the current crisis in Syria and will be extended to other countries such as Egypt, Iraq and Jordan.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said that the Islamic State (ISIL) militant group and other terrorists cannot be allowed to unite and take power in Syria.
"Daesh [ISIL] and other terrorist organizations can never be allowed to unite… we all agreed," Kerry said.
He added that following the Vienna talks, chances for political settlement in Syria were higher than ever before.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said that the United States will step up its military campaign in Syria to more effectively counter terrorism.
“We are investing in two parts approach, speaking for the United States, we are intensifying our counter-Daesh [ISIL] campaign and we are intensifying out diplomatic efforts in order to end the conflict," Kerry said.
"There is no agreement between us [negotiators] on how to decide on Bashar Assad's future. Russia is convinced that the Syrian people themselves should address the issue in context of the political process," Lavrov told a news conference in Vienna.
Lavrov added that participants of the Vienna talks on the Syrian crisis agreed to hold consultations to update the list of recognized terrorist organizations.
"We have agreed in our joint statement to fight firmly and consistently against the Islamic State and other terrorist groups, recognized by the UN Security Council as terrorists, and to hold additional consultations to coordinate the list of other organizations that have not been included in such lists yet but are obviously terrorist," Lavrov said after the talks.
"I think the next round of talks will be held no later than in two weeks," Lavrov also noted.
Joint statement, adopted on the results of multilateral meeting on #Syria pic.twitter.com/JPGut7oikR
— MFA Russia (@mfa_russia) 30 октября 2015
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that participants of the Syria talks in Vienna call on the United Nations to convene a meeting of the Syrian authorities and the opposition to prepare new Syrian constitution and hold general elections.
The opposition to prepare new Syrian constitution and hold general elections, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday. "The participants requested the UN to gather representatives of the Syrian Arab Republic and the opposition to start a political process. This political process should lead to an agreement of the parties on how to jointly create an inclusive structure that would allow to jointly address the issues of life in the country, to prepare a new constitution and hold general elections," Lavrov said.
"From the very beginning of our [air] campaign in Syria, which, I stress, is carried out at the request of the Syrian leadership, we have proposed the United States to negotiate on the coordination of our actions. So far, our US counterparts have only agreed to a mechanism to avoid unexpected incidents. But we are confident that we can do more, and more effectively fight against terrorists," Lavrov told reporters.
The negotiators on the Syrian civil war settlement have discussed ceasefire terms without setting specific dates, according to Lavrov.
"The second part of the issue was about the terms of a ceasefire, it was discussed in general. Nobody has coordinated any conditions except for the one that [the ceasefire] will not apply to terrorist groups and the fight against these terrorist groups," Lavrov said after the multilateral meeting in Vienna.
Sergei Lavrov also said that the final communique on the results of the negotiations in Vienna will allow initiating the work on the Syrian conflict settlement and easing tensions between the opponents.
"I am convinced that the principles formulated today in our joint statement allow starting the work [on the Syrian settlement] earnestly…This work will allow strengthening trust, including between the countries of the region that have serious contradictions between each other," Lavrov said at a press conference after the multilateral meeting.
