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U.S. NEWS A3
Kerry dismisses posturing ahead of peace talks on Syria
MATTHEW LEE
AP Diplomatic Writer
PHNOM PENH, Cambo-
dia (AP) — U.S. Secretary
of State John Kerry on
Monday dismissed Syrian
government claims and
opposition complaints as
posturing ahead of U.N.-
led peace talks that are
to begin Friday and last six
months.
Monday’s scheduled
start in Geneva has been
pushed back to Friday
due to disagreements over
which groups can repre-
sent the opposition.
Kerry said that during his
short stay in Laos earlier
Monday, he had spoken to
the U.N. special envoy for
Syria and the foreign min-
isters of Russia, Saudi Ara-
bia, France and Turkey. The
goal is to reach a consen-
sus on how the talks will be
run and a planned cease-
fire would proceed.
“We’re going to have the
meeting and (the talks) are
going to start,” Kerry told
reporters. “But what we are
trying to do is to make ab-
solutely certain that when
they start everyone is clear
about roles and what’s
happening so you don’t go
there and wind up with a
question mark or a failure.
You don’t want to start Day
One by not being able to
make progress.”
U.N. Special Envoy Staf-
fan de Mistura, who an-
nounced in Geneva that
the negotiations would
start Friday, told reporters
the sides will not talk direct-
ly to each other to begin
with.
Kerry said any disagree-
ments arising in the Ge-
neva talks would be ad-
dressed by another meet-
ing of the 20-odd member
International Syria Support
Group that is tentatively
scheduled for Feb. 11.
Syrian officials have said
they will make no conces-
sions at the negotiating
table. Opposition figures
have complained that
they are being forced into
the talks.
Kerry said those recent
statements reflect only
“tensions” and “rumors.”
He dismissed suggestions
of disunity among coun-
tries that back the opposi-
tion and said U.S. support
Tuesday 26 January 2016

for foes of Syrian President
Bashar Assad remains solid.
“I think these are just ten-
sions. These are things you
hear as people are wor-
ried,” he said.
Over the weekend, a se-
nior official in Assad’s ruling
Baath party said the gov-
ernment would not make
any new concessions in
the peace talks at a time
when the Syrian army with
the help of Russia is making
progress in different parts
of the country.
“We are not going to give
today what we did not
give over the past five
years,” Hilal al-Hilal said
late Saturday, during a visit
to troops in areas they re-
cently captured from insur-
gents outside the capital,
Damascus.
Kerry said that claim was in-
consistent with the positions
of Russia and Iran. Assad’s
main backers have agreed
to a U.N.-supported politi-
cal transition process that is
to form a new government
over the next 18 months.
“That doesn’t make sense,”
Kerry said. “If that’s their at-
titude, the war does not
end. That is not the Russian
attitude. The Russians say
(the Syrians) are going to
go and they are going to
negotiate.”
He added, however, that
nothing was certain. “We
are going to know very
quickly, in a month or two U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry speaks to U.S. Embassy staff in Vientiane, Laos, Monday, Jan. 25,
or three, whether these 2016. Kerry is in Laos on the third leg of his latest round-the-world diplomatic mission, which will
guys are serious.” also take him to Cambodia and China.
Separately, Turkey’s foreign
minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)
warned that any participa-
tion of Kurdish forces in the
Geneva talks would spell
the end of the initiative.
Kerry, who met with the
chief opposition nego-
tiator in Saudi Arabia on
Saturday, also addressed
complaints from Assad foes
who say the U.S. and others
are giving in to demands
from the government and
its supporters.
“The position of the Unit-
ed States is and hasn’t
changed. We are still sup-
porting the opposition,
politically, financially and
militarily,” he said, add-
ing later: “We completely
empowered them. I don’t
know where this is coming
from.”q