Washington supports Astana talks on Syria

The United States is encouraging Syria peace talks prepared by Russia later this month in the Kazakh capital Astana and hopes they will be a step toward peace, Reuters reported.

US Secretary of State John Kerry, who was speaking in his final news conference at the State Department yesterday, said: “We’re encouraging a meeting in Astana. We hope that could produce a step forward.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier that Russia, Iran, Turkey and the Syrian government had all agreed to hold talks in Astana although no date has been set for their commencement.

Kerry said he had talked to UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and the objective remained “to get to Geneva where the real meat of the talks is going to take place.”

After several failed ceasefire attempts brokered by Kerry and Lavrov, the United States remained out of the latest Syrian talks. It is unclear whether the United States will attend the Astana talks.

With two weeks left for the Obama administration’s term, Kerry said it was unclear what the new administration’s approach to foreign policy would be under President-elect Donald Trump.

“Nobody can predict what choices this administration is going to make. I don’t know. I don’t think you do,” said Kerry, “The question a lot of people are asking is: Do they know? We’re going to have to wait and see what choices they make.”