Kerry wants Syria to be ‘united, secular, stable and without foreign troops’

The US Secretary of State has said that he hopes to see a “united, secular Syria that can be at peace and stable again without foreign troops,” Anadolu reported on Sunday. John Kerry made his comments at a joint press conference with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in New York. The US and Russian presidents will meet on Monday.

“This is the beginning of a genuine effort to see if there is a way to de-conflict,” said Kerry. “We have concerns about how we are going to go forward, but that is precisely what we are meeting on to talk about now.”

He called for coordinated international efforts to face Daesh and the other extremist groups in the Middle East, noting that this is not happening at the moment.

When asked about Baghdad’s announcement of intelligence cooperation with Russia, Lavrov responded, “We are coordinating efforts against Daesh.”