DAMASCUS, Syria—Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday discussed ways of organizing a political process between the Syrian government and its opponents, a day after the two met in Vienna along with the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia and Turkey, the Russian foreign ministry said.
The top diplomats from the four countries put forward new ideas to revive a failed push for a political transition in Syria that would end the country’s civil war, Kerry said after Friday’s meeting. But they remained deeply divided over the future of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The follow-up telephone discussion between Lavrov and Kerry was initiated by Kerry, the Russian foreign ministry said.
Separately, Lavrov said Saturday that Russia was ready to support the Free Syrian Army in its fight against the Islamic State (ISIS). The Free Syrian Army is the main Western-backed opposition group fighting Assad.
“We are ready to include the patriotic opposition, among them the Free Syrian Army, to support them from the air,” he said in an interview aired Saturday on state television channel Rossiya-1.
But he said the Americans would not give Moscow the locations of the opposition group and the locations of terrorist groups. He said the U.S. was refusing to coordinate their anti-terrorist campaign in Syria, calling it a “big mistake.”
“We are ready for such coordination as thoroughly as possible,” he said.
