The talks for a resolution in Syria are on going in Vienna. John Kerry to date has sided with Iran against the positions of the Gulf States and Turkey while mostly playing mediator. Russia continues without consequence to support Basher al Assad of Syria. In summary, there is no progress except that no one from the West is challenging the new status quo and the hegemony in the region.
Iran came prepared for all possibilities on the table in Vienna and would walk away from the talks fundamentally if they did not get their way.
Tehran has warned it would quit the talks if it found them unconstructive and has complained about what it says is a negative role in Syria by its regional rival, Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, the factions of Western backed Syrian rebels along with countless factions of pro-Assad/pro-Iranian groups along with ISIS and al Nusra make up the real conditions on the ground and no one has full management of the situation. Now, Russia once again is taking the lead where Lavrov is making some key demands which would likely result Russian/Assad full control.
VoA: Moscow wants a second round of talks on Syria to come to an agreement on a list of terrorist groups operating in the country.
Speaking Tuesday in Sochi, Russia, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called such a list necessary “so that no one has any doubt in regard to the orientation of one or another armed group” in Syria.
Russia’s Tass state news agency reported Lavrov added it would be “impossible” to move forward without “full clarity on this issue.”
He said when a cease-fire is declared with the start of a political process “the cease-fire agreement will not apply to terrorist organizations, which continue to be considered legitimate targets.”
The second round of talks is scheduled for Saturday in Vienna.
The United States and other Western countries have been conducting airstrikes targeting the Islamic State (IS) group in Syrian and Iraq. While Moscow claims its own air campaign in Syria is directed against IS, Washington says 85-90 percent of Russian airstrikes in Syria since last month have hit the moderate Syrian opposition to President Bashar al-Assad.
France’s Defense Ministry said French fighter jets struck IS oil facilities Tuesday in eastern Syria.
Diplomats from 17 countries, plus the United Nations and European Union, met in Vienna on October 30 for a first round of talks on Syria. They agreed to a U.N.-led process involving talks between the Syrian government and opposition, and also to explore a cease-fire that would still allow strikes against terrorist groups.
At least 22 people were killed Tuesday in a rebel attack in the coastal city of Latakia, a Syrian government bastion. Russian combat aircraft operate out of a base outside the city.
Meanwhile, Syrian state media reported government forces had broken a two-year IS siege of a military airport near the northern city of Aleppo.
The pressure on the White House is coming from a bi-partisan group in Congress calling on a tangible and viable strategy. So far the Obama administration has ignored the fight in Syria and Iraq where recently dispatched 50 special forces as a mere gesture.
Some members of Congress are calling for the United States and some of its allies to change the way they are waging war against ISIS.
A bipartisan slate of senators and representatives want Congress to pass an updated authorization for President Obama to conduct the war against ISIS in light of his decision to send fifty special operations ground troops to Syria.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va) and Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz) brought up their draft Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), which they originally proposed as an amendment in June, during a business meeting of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Tuesday.
This measure would define the conflict as one to protect American lives and provide military support to regional partners in their fight against ISIS. It would also repeal a 2002 authorization of the Iraq war, which the White House has used as the legal basis for its airstrikes against ISIS. The administration has also cited a 2001 AUMF that authorized use of military force against the perpetrators of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, but the Kaine/Flake amendment does not repeal that measure.
The senators argue that Congress’s passage of an AUMF represents the fulfillment of its Constitutional duty under Article I to “declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water.”
During the committee meeting, Kaine also presented a letter, signed by 35 House Democrats and Republicans, urging House Speaker Paul Ryan to take up an AUMF vote in the House.
“Given the recent announcement by President Obama of a deepening entanglement in Syria and Iraq, it is critical that the House schedule and debate an Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) as quickly as possible,” the letter reads in part.
