SIGNIFICANT differences remain over the future of President Bashar Al-Assad, Philip Hammond has said, followingafter talks to end Syria’s civil war broke up.
World powers, including Syrian ally Iran, agreed to work towards brokering a ceasefire, after eight hours of discussions in Vienna to thrash out ways to tackle the conflict.
It comes as the USnited States announced it will send in up to 50 members of its special forces to support rebel groups fighting Islamic State (IS) in Syria.
Russia and Iran remain resistant to demands that President Assad must go, and Foreign Secretary Mr Hammond said that while the meeting had been “productive”, differences remained.
“This is the first time we’ve had all the protagonists around a table together and that is quite a remarkable achievement in itself,” the minister Secretary said in Vienna. We have discovered over the course of eight hours that actually there is quite a lot that we do agree. He added: But we also recognise there are some areas where we have very significant differences. And we have explored some of those differences, most obviously around the future of Bashar Assad.”
Ministers will reconvene within two weeks, to discuss progress by officials.
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