Esra Kaymak
January 20, 2016•Update: January 20, 2016
WASHINGTON
Some issues remain to be sorted out before peace talks on Syria takes place later this month, the U.S. said Tuesday.
Although there were still "plenty of differences of opinion" among participants about what a political transition should look like and how it would happen, State Department spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. wanted the process "to keep moving forward".
"We're not unmindful of the fact that there still remains differences of opinion, and that this is a complicated process," Kirby said. Kirby said Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov would meet Wednesday in Zurich, and he stressed that the diplomats would "certainly" talk about the political transition process in Syria.
Disagreements persists among participants, such as the U.S. and Russia, about which opposition groups should be invited to the Jan. 25 talks.
The U.S. and Russia also disagree on what role Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should play in any transition.
The U.S. wants a transition without Assad but Russia contends that the Syrian people should decide his fate.
Other disagreements include who will represent the Syrian opposition delegation and who should be designated as terrorist.
The UN set Jan. 25 as the target date to bring together Syria's warring factions to begin peace talks in Geneva within the framework of a plan set out during three rounds of international talks to foster an end to the civil war.
On Dec. 18, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution calling for a UN-backed political process that would let Syrian factions form a transitional governing body in six months and hold UN-supervised national elections within 18 months.
A UN spokesman said on Monday that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged countries backing opposing sides in the conflict to "redouble efforts" to reach an agreement on which opposition groups should be invited.
