Talks between the US and Russia have ended without an agreement on ending violence in Syria, a US official said on Monday.
Meeting
on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit here, US Secretary of State
John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov were working to
negotiate a plan that would have boosted military cooperation between
the two nations in an effort to better target terrorists and prevent
civilian deaths.
But negotiators failed to work though differences, and the talks have ended for now.
"There
are still issues to resolve," the US official said. Neither side
indicated what the points of contention were, or when they expected
talks to resume.
On Sunday, cautious optimism prevailed that a deal could be struck
between Washington and Moscow, long at odds over policy in Syria. Kerry
and Lavrov had been working "around the clock" to come to an agreement,
US President Barack Obama told reporters.
The campaign has spurred a humanitarian crisis and caused millions of Syrians to flee for Europe.
The
US hopes to align with Russia to identify terrorist targets, including
ISIS and the Nusra Front, a group formerly tied to al-Qaeda. Officials
hope a ceasefire will help advance talks on a political transition that
would lead to the resignation of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
Obama and Russian President Vladimir
Putin were expected to interact Monday on the sidelines of the G20
summit, though a formal meeting was not on the books.
Any
deal to end widespread suffering in Syria was likely to be met with
doubt after past settlements, including a ceasefire agreed to in
February, failed -- a fact Obama acknowledged on
"Given the failure of previous cessations of hostilities to hold, we approach it with some skepticism," Obama said.
But he insisted any work toward easing the deeply troubling humanitarian crisis was valuable.
"It
is worth trying," he said. "To the extent that there are children and
women and innocent civilians who can get food and medical supplies and,
you know, get some relief from the constant terror of bombings, that's
worth the effort."
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