Syria peace talks to restart,
Agreement came as missile attack in Damascus suburb killed at least 40 people
VIENNA — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday that a group of nations with opposing stakes in the Syrian war had agreed to “explore the modalities of a nationwide ceasefire” and had asked the United Nations to oversee the rewriting of the country’s constitution and then new elections.
The announcement, which Kerry made with Russian counterpart and adversary in the broadening war in Syria, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, represented the first time all the major outside participants in a conflict now in its fifth year had agreed on the start of a political process to bring it to an end.
But what they described after seven hours of heated negotiations here, marked by sharp exchanges between the foreign ministers of Iran and Saudi Arabia, amounted to more of an aspiration than a negotiation.
There was no target date or deadline for either the ceasefire or a new constitution and election that would follow. It remains unclear whether President Bashar Assad of Syria — who was not invited to the meeting — or the rebels who have been seeking to overthrow him will agree.
The agreement came as activists said a missile attack in the Damascus suburb of Douma killed at least 40 people Friday, The Associated Press reported. The attack, the latest on this rebel-held area that has seen hundreds of people killed over the past few years, was a stark reminder of the enormous civilian suffering inside Syria while negotiations over Assad’s future take place abroad.
In Vienna, the nations agreed to meet in two weeks to put more spe- cifics into the basic principles they issued Friday night, which included a commitment to keep Syria together as a single nation — just at a moment it seems headed toward splintering.
Kerry and Lavrov said they remained deeply divided on the question of whether Assad must go in any final settlement, as the United States and its main allies, Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf States, have all demanded. “We have no agreement on the destiny of Assad,” Lavrov told reporters as he sat next to Kerry. “The Russian people believe it is up to the Syrian people to decide.”
But both men said the ceasefire would not apply to the conflict with the forces of the Islamic State group that have now commandeered parts of Syria.
For Kerry, getting a diplomatic process going to end the Syrian war has become something of a negotiating obsession, much as reaching the nuclear accord with Iran — which came to fruition here in Vienna three months ago, with talks taking place in some of the same hotel rooms. While the initial progress on Syria was slim, many diplomats who were involved said that it amounted to more than they thought possible even a few weeks ago. “This meeting was definitely not an easy one,” said Federica Mogherini, the European Union’s top foreign policy official, “but for sure a historic one as we had, for the first time, all the actors around the table and I would say a very constructive atmosphere.”
Still, the tensions in the room underscored how difficult it could be to reach a common understanding. The participants lined up, broadly speaking, into two groups: A Russian- and Iranian-led group that has been supporting Assad and his minority government, and an American- and Saudi-led group that has insisted any process must end up with the Syrian leader gone from the country.