WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Toner explained that Washington believes that the ultimate solution to the ongoing conflict in Syria is a political transition and the upcoming elections are premature.
"We would view those elections as not legitimate in the sense that they don’t represent the will of the Syrian people," Toner stated when asked about the April 13 vote.
The previous round of Syrian talks in Geneva finished on March 24. The round saw all delegations submit their settlement proposals to Syrian Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, who then produced a final paper with points of convergence between the parties.
The peace talks followed a Russian-US-brokered ceasefire deal reached on February 27. On March 14, Putin ordered Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to start withdrawing most of Russia's military contingent from Syria, which had been conducting strikes against terrorist targets since late September.
