US team heads for Geneva to mull Syria talks date

Washington on Tuesday downplayed hopes that US and Russian officials will set a date for a highly-anticipated Syria peace conference at new talks in Geneva, warning there were still challenges ahead.

Undersecretary Wendy Sherman and acting Assistant Secretary Beth Jones flew to the Swiss city for Wednesday’s talks with their Moscow counterparts and UN envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi as they seek to launch peace negotiations.

“They’ll discuss the agenda, participants, all of those issues,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters. But “I don’t know that it will be conclusive. I wouldn’t anticipate that.”

The United States and Russia have pledged to work in tandem to seek to bring the Syrian regime and the opposition together and try to negotiate a political transition to end the war that has left some 94,000 dead.

The initial plan for the talks to be held early this month — to build on an accord signed in Geneva on June 30 — has now slipped into July, amid wrangling over the exact guest list and agenda.

The Syrian opposition has said they would not attend as long as fighters from Iran and the Islamist-militia Hezbollah are fighting in Syria alongside the forces of President Bashar al-Assad.

It has also so far reportedly rejected names put forward by the Syrian regime as possible interlocutors.

Despite eight days of tense talks in Istanbul, the opposition has also yet to elect a new leadership that would be able to approve a team to send to the peace conference, dubbed Geneva II.

“The US has been engaged and involved in helping the opposition in this conflict from the beginning. But there is a feeling it’s challenging; it’s not easy,” Psaki said.

“We’re dealing with a regime that is well-coordinated against an opposition that is still trying to coordinate and still trying to elect … a leadership.”

US Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday again acknowledged that an end to the bloodshed was still not in sight, saying “this is a very difficult process which we come to late.”

“The United States can push and cajole, and President (Barack) Obama has instructed all of us to try to take every step possible to protect the people and to provide a venue for this dialogue to take place,” Kerry said.

“But in the end, the people on the ground are going to have to decide that that’s something they’re prepared to engage in.”

Last year’s talks involved top diplomats from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council — the United States, China, Russia, France and Britain — and representatives of Turkey, the Arab League and the European Union.

But Russia has been pushing hard for Iran, another key Assad ally, to have some kind of role, despite concerns from the West about including the Islamic republic, which it accuses of shoring up the Syrian regime.