VIENNA—U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry opened talks in Vienna on Friday with his Russian, Saudi and Turkish counterparts aimed at reviving a moribund effort to end Syria’s civil war.
Kerry began a day-long series of meetings at a luxuy hotel in the Austrian capital by consulting with Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir and Turkish Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlioglu, both of whom share the U.S. view that Syrian President Bashar Assad must go for the conflict is to be resolved. Kerry then met separately with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, whose country is Assad’s prime backer.
None of them spoke to reporters at either meeting, both of which took place ahead of a four-way encounter set for later in the day.
On Thursday in Berlin, Kerry said one focus of the talks would be to consider “a broader participation of very necessary countries, all of whom need to be at the table” to discuss the way forward in Syria. Russia is keen to bring Assad’s other main supporter, Iran, into the talks, but Saudi Arabia in particular is opposed.
Kerry said all the countries with an interest in Syria, including Iran and Russia, agree on what the result should be: a unified, secular and pluralistic Syria governed with the consent of its people. He said that Assad’s continued presence is the only thing preventing that goal from being realized.
“One thing stands in the way of being able to rapidly move to implement that, and it’s a person called Assad — Bashar Assad,” he said. “So the issue is, can we get to a political process during which time the future devolution and allocation of power in Syria is properly allocated by the people of Syria? And that’s what we’re working towards. So my hope is that these talks can begin a process that could open up a greater discussion.”
Syria is now in its fifth year of a civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands, contributed to a massive refugee crisis in Europe and been complicated by the emergence of the Islamic State group and Russia’s direct military intervention.
