Kerry pushes Russia for Syria peace talks

US Secretary of State John Kerry spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov Thursday in an effort to push forward a peace conference on Syria, dubbed Geneva II, US officials said.

A first round of talks in Geneva, held last June, ended in a stalemate. At the time, the US and Russia agreed on the need for a transitional government but left open whether Syrian President Bashar Assad should participate or not.

“It’s important to note that even though we’re focused here and the secretary’s focused every day on working with Congress and working on building our international coalition for this specific targeted action, that we still continue to believe that there’s no military solution,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a press briefing Thursday.

“We do remain focused on Geneva and using that as a venue for a negotiated political settlement” she said, adding that the US was “still working through the details and the process.”

“Part of what we’re discussing with the Russians and others is how we can get both sides back to the table,” revealed Psaki.

In August, Kerry and Lavrov held talks, pledging to work together on shared interests even as they nursed frustration over their deep differences on issues like missile defense, Syria and the case of NSA leaker Edward Snowden.

At the time, Lavrov told reporters that US and Russian officials will reconvene at the end of August to plan for talks in Geneva, which had been stalled since May amid sharp disagreements over the purpose and objectives of the summit, the division among the rebels on representation and reports of battlefield gains by Assad forces aided by terror group Hezbollah.

The Geneva Conference is intended to bring rebel factions and representatives of the Assad government to the table to negotiate an end to the bloodshed, which has so far claimed over 100,000 lives.

In recent weeks, US efforts have focused on seeking international support for a strike in Syria, in response to an alleged chemical attack on August 21 in a Damascus suburb which the US says killed 1,429 people.

US President Barack Obama was in St-Petersburg, Russia Thursday at the G-20 summit discussing the Syrian crisis with world leaders, and pressing for support. He ran into opposition from Russia, China and even the European Union — which condemned the deadly recent chemical weapons attack but declared it too soon for military action.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has maintained that the only solution is a diplomatic solution.

White House advisers said Obama was seeking “political and diplomatic” support from his international counterparts, not necessarily military cooperation. And Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser, said the type of action the US is contemplating “does not come with significant requirements of international participation.”

On Wednesday, a Senate panel approved a resolution authorizing President Barack Obama to order a limited military strike in Syria in response to the regime’s alleged use of chemical weapons in the August 21 attack. The conditions for the approval include that the operation last no more than 90 days and that there be no American boots on the ground.

Obama will next be seeking congressional approval for a strike, as Congress reconvenes September 9.