The US and Russia have agreed to press the UN to set a date for a Syria peace conference sometime in the second week of next month, US Secretary of State John Kerry said yesterday after talks with his Russian counterpart.
“We will urge a date to be set as soon as possible,” Kerry told reporters at a joint news conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Kerry also said that the start of the destruction of chemical weapons in Syria was a “good beginning” and, in unusual praise for Damascus, said Syria’s government should be given credit for complying with a recent UN resolution to destroy its chemical weapons arsenal.
Photo: AFP
“I think it is extremely significant that yesterday, Sunday, within a week of the resolution being passed, some chemical weapons were already being destroyed,” Kerry said.
“We hope that will continue. I’m not going to vouch today for what happens months down the road, but it’s a good beginning, and we should welcome a good beginning,” he added.
Kerry and Lavrov met at a resort on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Bali, Indonesia, where they signed an agreement on nuclear risk reduction centers in Washington and Moscow, first created in 1987 to facilitate verification of arms control treaties and agreements.
Kerry and Lavrov met first with aides and then privately where they discussed ways to end Syria’s civil war and upcoming talks with Iran on ending a dispute over its nuclear weapons program.
Kerry characterized his meeting with Lavrov as “one of the most productive we have had,” saying they spoke at length about ways to bring warring parties in Syria together for talks in Geneva, known as Geneva 2.
“We agreed again there is no military solution here and we share an interest in not having radical extremists on either side assuming a greater position in Syria, and that is why we re-committed today very specific efforts to move the Geneva process as rapidly as possible,” Kerry said.
He said both sides would seek to “lay the groundwork for a round of talks.”
“It is our mutual hope that that can happen in November and we are both intent and determined in consultations with our friends in these efforts to try to make certain this can happen in November,” Kerry said, adding: “A final date and terms of participation will have to be determined by the United Nations.”
A team of international experts from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague and personnel from the UN began destroying Syria’s chemical gas arsenal on Sunday.
It follows an agreement hammered out between Washington and Moscow after a deadly Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack in the suburbs of Damascus, which prompted US threats of air strikes against the Syrian government. The elimination of the chemical weapons is expected to continue until at least the middle of next year.
More than 100,000 people have died in the conflict in Syria, which began in early 2011 with peaceful demonstrations seeking more democracy, but deteriorated into a sectarian civil war.
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
US president-elect Donald Trump is not typically known for his calm or reserve, but in a craftsman’s workshop in rural China he sits in divine contemplation. Cross-legged with his eyes half-closed in a pose evoking the Buddha, this porcelain version of the divisive US leader-in-waiting is the work of designer and sculptor Hong Jinshi (洪金世). The Zen-like figures — which Hong sells for between 999 and 20,000 yuan (US$136 to US$2,728) depending on their size — first went viral in 2021 on the e-commerce platform Taobao, attracting national headlines. Ahead of the real-estate magnate’s inauguration for a second term on Monday next week,
CYBERSCAM: Anne, an interior decorator with mental health problems, spent a year and a half believing she was communicating with Brad Pitt and lost US$855,259 A French woman who revealed on TV how she had lost her life savings to scammers posing as Brad Pitt has faced a wave of online harassment and mockery, leading the interview to be withdrawn on Tuesday. The woman, named as Anne, told the Seven to Eight program on the TF1 channel how she had believed she was in a romantic relationship with the Hollywood star, leading her to divorce her husband and transfer 830,000 euros (US$855,259). The scammers used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as artificial intelligence image-creating technology to send Anne selfies and other messages
RSS