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            Lavrov Meets Kerry, Says Syria Peace Bid a 'Tall Order'

   by VOA News

   The top diplomats of the United States and Russia have ended a meeting
   in Paris with no apparent progress in their efforts to hold a peace
   conference aimed at ending the civil war in Syria.
   Speaking after Monday's meeting, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
   said holding such a peace conference as that planned for Geneva next
   month will be a "tall order." In a sign of lingering disagreement with
   the United States, Lavrov also said Russia wants the participants to be
   expanded from the major powers who agreed on a Syrian peace plan in
   Geneva last year.
   Lavrov said the peace talks should include "all key outside players who
   have influence on the situation on the ground" in Syria - an apparent
   reference to Iran. Both Russia and Iran are among Syrian President
   Bashar al-Assad's last remaining international allies.
   The United States backs the Syrian opposition and has long criticized
   Iranian support for Assad, accusing Tehran of exacerbating the Syrian
   conflict rather than being part of a solution.
   Kerry said the United States and Russia remain committed to
   implementing the 2012 Geneva peace plan, which calls for Syria's
   warring parties to form a transitional government by mutual consent and
   allow the "people of Syria to decide the future of Syria." He also said
   the two world powers share concerns about the potential use of chemical
   weapons in the Syrian conflict.
   EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels struggled to overcome a
   dispute about whether to ease an arms embargo on Syrian rebels.
   Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger said he and his
   counterparts failed to reach an agreement despite holding marathon
   talks on Monday. He told reporters that the lack of consensus means the
   existing EU embargo on both Syria's government and rebels is likely to
   expire on Friday.
   But EU and German sources said efforts to find a consensus would
   continue, and they rejected the Austrian declaration of failure as
   premature.
   Austria is among several EU members that oppose a partial easing of the
   Syria embargo to enable rebels to be armed.
   Britain and France have been the strongest supporters of such a move.
   Speaking on the sidelines of the talks, British Foreign Minister
   William Hague said the Syrian rebels need weapons.
   "In our view, it is important to show that we are prepared to amend our
   arms embargo so that the Assad regime gets a clear signal that it has
   to negotiate seriously. Therefore, for us, amending the embargo is part
   of supporting the diplomatic work and trying to bring about a political
   solution," Hague said.
   In another development, Syria's main opposition group has rejected a
   proposal to significantly expand its membership with supporters of a
   Saudi-backed veteran dissident, Michel Kilo.
   The Syrian National Council's Qatar-allied Muslim Brotherhood faction
   successfully resisted the proposal, which would have greatly increased
   Saudi Arabia's influence over the group. Kilo's bloc had been seeking
   up to 22 new seats in the 60-member coalition, but it ended up with
   five.
   Heavy fighting raged in Syria around the strategic rebel-held border
   town of Qusair and the capital, Damascus, amid renewed reports of
   chemical weapons attacks by Assad's forces.
   In Geneva, U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay lamented the "horrific"
   level of rights violations in war-torn Syria, saying "a humanitarian,
   political and social disaster is already upon us, and what looms is
   truly a nightmare." She addressed diplomats as she opened one of the
   U.N. Human Rights Council's four annual sessions.
   Rights activists say the Syrian conflict has killed more than 80,000
   people since it began as peaceful protests against Assad in March 2011.
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   nference/1669429.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/russia-us-kerry-lavrov-syria-peace-conference/1669429.html