State Department: Syria talks are dragging on because Russia rejected previous agreements
The United States did not make the progress that President Barack Obama was hoping for in the negotiations with Russia about Syria, despite, according to him, working around the clock. “This is a very difficult matter,” he told reporters on Sunday, September 4. The US State Department said that the agreement was close to a conclusion, but it was again postponed due to a number of issues about which Russia renounced previously-reached arrangements.
“The Russians have returned to their previous positions on the issues that we considered to be closed; that’s why we are returning to our capitals for consultations,” a State Department spokesman said. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, will meet again in Hangzhou on September 5. “We’re not going to rush,” Kerry said, adding that it is necessary to resolve some difficult issues and reach an agreement that will be durable. The United States seeks a complete ceasefire and will not agree to the terms of a temporary truce, the AP agency reports, referring to a statement from the State Department.
Russian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Ryabkov said that the parties “are close to a conclusion of the agreement,” but at the moment he is not ready to predict when its conclusion will be announced. According to him, “the art of diplomacy sometimes takes time to translate into concrete actions.”
The negotiations with Russia are playing a key role in reaching an agreement on a ceasefire in Syria, President Obama said before the G20 summit in Hangzhou on the morning of September 4. At the same time, he stressed that these negotiations are extremely complex, and there are still significant differences between the positions and approaches of Moscow and Washington. “This applies to both parties to the conflict who we support, as well as the political process necessary for Syria to restore peace,” the president said.
On Monday, Obama and Putin held a 90-minute meeting at the G20 summit, where the two leaders discussed the wars in Syria and Ukraine.